hello and welcome to channel seven teams town meeting television i met calley your host for another live candidate forum for our twenty eight thousand midterm general election joining me this evening is jansen wilhoit and t j donovan candidates for attorney general gentlem welcome to you both thank you for joining us we'll begin this evening with opening statements from each candidate and gents and we'll begin with you thank you matt and i think you viewers my name is james and will white and i am running to be your attorney general and the reason i'm running is because my life i have committed myself not only as a parent as a foster parent as a legislator and as an attorney to fight for and if in the role of wall for equal protection under law and to protect the most vulnerable among us now we have made strides when it comes to criminal justice reform here in vermont but unfortunately there is still too much just versity and disparity in our system many times too often times where someone happens to live or who they are determines their fate in the criminal justice system that is why for the past four years in the legislature or vigorously to stop the policies and continue to do that as your attorney general am also running to be your attorney general because i believe in an open and transparent government the fraud that occurred and that you the five scandal that affected the northeast scheme of this tragedy it was a worse scandal in the history of that whole program and the truth is if anybody in our government was complicit to that fraud they should pay for it and that is why i have committed to making sure that if i'm your attorney general i will seek the truth wherever it may lead us again i think you and i do ask for your vote your good jensen wilhite t j donovan your opening statement please thank you thanks for having me i'm running for reelection as attorney general represent ordinary vermonters people who don't have a voice to truly be the people's lawyer i think it's clear that in november of two thousand and sixteen our country changed you have environmental protections being dismantled you have people's civil rights and fundamental rights being threatened you have consumer protections being stripped away and really the essence of our country that the character of our country is at issue this is why you need a strong attorney general to stand up for  why i sued purdue pharmaceutical for starting the crisis in this state that's why fatah to preserve clean air and clean water fighting against the federal government as they seek to dismantle the e p a because something that we value in this state is our opportunity for people who get up every day work hard and deserve the government to work for them we started a small business business initiative in our state to reach out to the backbone of our communities small businesses to simply ask them what do you need to be successful in this state i'm a believer that the best form of public safety is a good job but before we get people job ready we have to make sure that the fundamentals of our community are addressed and that means access to health care early childhood education good public schools with robust mental health services affordable housing access to affordable higher education that's redefining what a safe environment community is for all vermonters that's what i'm fighting for to to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to get it to defend the most affordable to stand up for folks to stand up for children to stand up for the elderly and to protect people's civil rights against the federal government that are threatening them today were good to day don thank you remind our viewers that if you have a question for either t j or jensen our phone lines are open at eight six to three nine six six and we welcome all our viewers enjoying our online stream at c eight seventy dot t v t j we're going to get right into some the questions here you had a wonderful broad opening statement there when i know you personally as the state's attorney general working on it as your priorities for this next by any i'm sure number one opiates as i said i've su purdue pharma for starting the opiate crisis of manufacture of oxycodone i think the opiate demick is the number one issue in our state to many people's lives have been ruined people have died kids are being raised mostly by their grandparents because of the devastating impact of this disease we've done a good job on the issues of treatment we've done a good job on the issues of prevention we need to do more it's time for corporate accountability that's why i said pharma i'm also proud that i've started a community justice program in my office which for the first time addresses the geographic disparities that exist in our criminal justice system in our fourteen counties we're moving to a standardized and uniform system in our fourteen counties the rates of diversion of pretrial services are up in all counties this is success because for far too long we've dealt with the issues of mental illness the issues of addiction the issues of poverty with a jail cell it's a failed approach we spend more money on corrections locking people up in this state than we do sending them to institutions of higher learning like you v m johnson and castleton that is a disgrace we need to do better i will always fight against investing in prisons and fight for investing in people giving people an opportunity but to address these issues and i'm not afraid about holding people personally responsible that put people in jail who deserve to be in jail that's those that pose a threat to our public safety i've done this to i've been a prosecutor most of my life but the vast majority of people who are in our prisons are people who are struggling with the issues of addiction the issues of mental illness the issues of trauma we have to become better at understanding trauma we have to understand the adverse impacts these experiences have on children so what is incumbent that we only address these issues of public safety it's not just about talking about a jail cell it's talking about mental health services it's talking about access to health care it's talking about early childhood education in good schools thank you so we address these issues so kids can grow up in our state seeing have the opportunity for success or good gentleman move on to you that was a long winded response  we have such a limited time we are asking our respondents to limit their responses to two minutes or less here be a crisis a failure for montana failure of the attorney general's office yes well if i if i may i want to go there i also want to answer those questions about about those two issues that the teacher a prop as well again we we we've made strides but not enough and again i think the simple answer is well we're going to sue you know big pharma for that but we've got to look at what we've done in this in our own state for the past twenty years we have addicks that are in the throes of addiction that that are in crisis and center for disease control or a legislature as said that the aren't criminals these are people in a health crisis but unfortunately our criminal justice system still treats them as criminals that's the reason why i thought for an advocated for for having possession charges no longer be felonies in the state so we aren't locking people up but guess what we still are because the majority party would not let that happen i also fought to remove all bail for these low level offenders again the compromise was well just two hundred dollars because anybody can afford two hundred dollars but they can't i just saw two weeks ago a young woman in windham county get held on two hundred dollars so guess where she is now in burlington and for months for no reason she should be getting the treatment she needs so that does require the best more in treatment and be able to have the resources we need to keep people out of prison with respect to the diversion pieces well again we still have gross disparity there i actually spent the general's office last year one of my cases from wyndham county this is a perfect case this is why it was written and they agreed but again the problem is it's absolute discretion by the state's attorney and so again it depends on where you live if you're going to get diversion and so i also advocated for giving the courts ability to divert people to diversion but again pushback from our attorney general and the democrats that is how we're going to fix these problems bold steps very good we have a listener question here  we're excited to have a viewer don and ask us a question you're on the air on call or do you have a question for t j or for jensen wilhoit i do this is thomas joseph i'm calling to inquire if i train general donovan or i can't offer some commentary on any transparency that they can bring to criminal fraud probe i recently worked with the attorney general's office for the past nearly three years and attorney general   spacing here the question was about fraud and you raised this in your opening statement about the e p five scandal and do you believe that all the answers are all the questions have been answered yet no they haven't and regards the b five or what caller's speaking about too there is fraud taking place for monitors expect and they deserve deserve those answers i mean we have supposing the most open transparent government one of things i love about b n in the state legislature it's really like none other we don't have security people can walk in asking the questions and that's that's why reminders expect and that's saying too with any kind of fraud is happening and the be frank i'm not an insider you know i have not been in throws of state government for years and years and have the pedigree of some of the cronyism quite frankly that is there so i am willing to again follow the facts as they lead me and that means even the most important people are to blame then they deserve to be held sure who my opponent refers to when he talks about turning ism let's talk about transparency i was the first person in this state to advocate for a change to the federal system which would make public records presumed to disclose to make  subject to disclosure that was transparent but there are exceptions to that rule litigation is one of these cases happen happen to be a lady geisha and you don't my opponent so an attorney knows this look you have a job as an attorney to represent your client that's what we're doing but let me talk about transparency in the c b five case there's a couple cases one was a senate securities fraud case up in newport i resolve that i've gotten two million dollars to fix that hole in newport that we've all talked about the state of vermont has been sued we defend the state of vermont that's the role of the attorney general to defend the state of vermont if you don't defend them you're not fulfilling your ethical and professional obligation so this idea of not doing your job voters should question that because the job well maybe politically unpopular is to defend the state of vermont and that's what i'm doing but let's talk about the case that we're defended we won we won that case is now on appeal in the supreme court we're defending that that's our job so i've said i will turn all all the records over and i will once a litigation is done because that's the role of an attorney but for me that wasn't good enough because this does go to the heart of public trust in government and i'll be very blunt with it the answer is never going to be told in a legal system because the confidential in the privileges that we all know about so i asked auditor doug coffer who's an independent third party i said would you do a review of what happened in state government who did what in state government a completely separate review he agreed to it we've turned over two point five million documents to the state auditor who's doing this review who's going to tell us the story of who do what in state government to restore the public trust in government but at the end of the day when you talk about being an attorney being the attorney general for the state one of your main clients is the state of vermont and so it's easy to say i'm going to get to the bottom of it well we are get to the bottom of it we're defending the state we've won every case we've been involved in i don't control whether people appeal it up to the supreme court but the job is to defend the state that's the job it's not a popular job a lot of these cases but that's the job but i've gone the extra mile and said on our offer here's over two million docket documents tell us the story and once this is done will release the documents i don't have a problem with that but until we do that i'm going to fall the rules of our profession i'm going to fall the rules and the ethics of our profession and anybody to suggest otherwise is unfit to be attorney general i'm going to follow up with this just a little bit if i may you say that you're representing the state of vermont absolutely do you feel that you're representing vermonters in that saying it's a great it's a great question it's a great question and when you talk about representing the state of vermont you're talking about representing the entities which are state agencies here in the state monitors being represented business and be as they are there yes they are because at the end of the day if we're not it's for miners the taxpayers who are going to pay they are and so you are representing vermonters your client is the state agency but you do that as being an elected official making sure that you're providing a legal services for the state the state's lawyer and let me just finish and so when you talk about not representing the state you know you're putting at risk you're put at risk the vermont taxpayer so what i've done i think is a very professional thing a very pr thing to say this we're going to fulfill our of our of a call to defend the state because we're being sued the case we brought ever solve that was a two million dollar settlement to fill the hole up in newport which the folks up in newport a very happy about we've we've won that since it's in the supreme court but i also understand the need for transparency that's why i've asked doug offer to conduct an independent review and that's why i've turned over all the documents i will continue to turn over all the documents to the au independent third party to tell the story of who did what and state government to restore that trust and statement this is a big deal this issue of trust in government is a big deal there's a lot of cynicism in in in the world right now we know that that's what's going to give  unfolding and that the state is being defended you feel vermonters are being served and being defended here i don't think they are and on the larger part of that too while again i do these are and i'm also an attorney i understand the ethical legal obligations of your client but also you so have ethical ethical obligations of going how you do can talk your business and again that's the reason why when there are freedom of information requests that are legitimate they have to be honored that's the reason even though under this administration they have lost in court for that our state when we have cost our taxpayers money for losing some of those battles so again that's why it should always be yes before no and so i do believe  that we can still do the job properly to thin the state while still being open and transparent that is what vermonters expect and they deserve ok we're moving on here privacy data breaches in the twenty first century they are a daily occurrence here affecting not only vermont businesses but vermonters in general the equifax breach just as an example what is the attorney general doing to protect vermonters in the twenty first century of data first sale so it's a great question and i think privacy really is the emerging issue in terms of consumer protection because as you said we are in not only the twenty first century economy but is it is a digital economy and people's information is being bought and it's being sold and let me tell you what the attorney general's office did we passed the first in the nation data broker bill where we now have a registry data brokers so vermonters can go do and say to these companies what do you have on me and what are you doing with it so the issue of disclosure the issue of the registry the issue of providing information to vermonters is the first step you know you now have what's called the g d p r and i think the general data protection act over and in the e u california adopted that it goes much further than what we did in vermont although we were first but this is going to be a balanc because vermont has to be a part of the global economy we have to be part of the digital economy because that's the way the world's going but at the same time you can't give up the consumer protections about protecting people's privacy so is it is it that is it is the owners on the consumer then that they have to opt out i mean there are statistics that say within the next twenty four months something like fifty percent of the telephone calls that you're going to get on your cell phone i'm going to be spam end of the day this is about providing consumers choice and when you talk about consumer protection it comes down to choice it comes down to informed choice so that data broker bill that we fought so hard and advocated to start with  first in the nation incredible pushback against the internet from the industry on this issue we passed it we got into law we champion it we're continuing to look at student privacy but this issue of allowing consumers to opt in i think is the next step going forward to protect consumers to create that balancing act in a digital economy that vermont has to be part of we have to be part of it but we can't give up the consumer protection which is privacy this is going to be one of the main issues going forward  do will will will do much of anything unless we actually do work with other states and quite frankly both the nation and our international community because again even if we do all the right things here others can so break that they get in there not th to tackle and so we're going to follow up on this and we'll continue with you gents and the next question on this comes about privacy and digital privacy does vermont internet service providers do vermont i customers to opt in to share their data usage we just kind of talked about that should there be a law here for anyone that provides internet service in the state of vermont to actually be a little bit more protective of vermont information you know which everything is online now good austin would be a detriment to our safety i mean we work so hard to get folks in my neck of the woods actually access to it to the internet but then again if now it's really than help them more than help t j don't listen this is why you need a strong attorney general because of the issue what's going on the federal government think net neutrality right right this this is the issue and are we going to abdicate our responsibility to the citizens of vermont and say to the f c c and the f t c we trust you here's the thing in vermont the attorney general stands up for minors so we fought first thing was the data broker bill introduced legislation this session about student privacy this is going forward where you don't abdicate your responsibility and say the federal government has it we're going to trust the f c c when to shove trust the f t c you know always trust but i mean to verify and i'm also into making sure that we pass these laws in vermont that are that are pretty strong in terms of protecting consumers that are balanced that understand vermont's role in the digital economy we've got to grow our economy but it's not an either or and it's not enough to say hey let's see what the feds do what i've done the last two years is fight against the federal government not only in the issues of protecting vermont consumers the issues of civil rights the issues of women's rights in the issues of environmental protection that's my record as attorney general that's what i'm running on i would want to just continue this a little bit because you did bring up net neutrality and that's actually a double edged sword when you speak and learn about you know american and their racist americans and what they can actually put out there on the internet so can you representative especially being bullied and threatened to resign her seat this is when you have an attorney general that steps up and says we're going to investigate this that's what i'm doing let me talk about the issue of a speech though the supreme court has ruled on a couple matters about having what's called a true threat and some of these issues may not be resolved in the court of law but what we do in this state is stand against hate that's why i've taken my civil rights unit across this state to a lot of high schools to talk to that next generation about what hate speech is and what the first amendment is we know what happened in charlottesville virginia that wasn't that wasn't protected speech that turned into criminal activity and we have an obligation to educate our students this next generation that when you see hate you confront hate but you confront it at the next treat corner with more speech you confront it at the ballot box you confront a in the legislature and you confront it in the court of law because we believe in the rule of law in this state and in this country so that the i'll defend anybody's first amendment rights but when it crosses over and i was the prosecutor who filed that charge against the k k k individual was handing out flyers not to the community at large i'd argue that people that would be protected but to two women of color i took that case on we litigated it we fought we had an incarcerated and eventually lost at the supreme court but i make no bones about that because at the end of the day you need a fighter in the attorney general's office he needs somebody who's not going to be intimidated and you need somebody who's going to go to bat for people who don't have a voice because that is the time we're in to thank you t j net neutrality it's a double edged sword views on no i also support the general principles i do want to go back if i can on the larger discussion the paid as well because again unfortunately the situation we have here is issue james and then when you are an attorney general you don't pick sides you do your job that's what a prosecutor does that's what i've done my entire career because let me tell you something no no no no no no no no victim no victim as ever asked a prosecutor no process no no prosecutors arrested make them what your political party you do your job that's my record that's been my career well dance and it is but again the thing is and maybe this is a bit different because again because while again i can be just as strong a fighter for the state of vermont i also do the thin defend folks and i fought for civil liberties all my life and again another important supreme court case that i won they got up held it was was other so called hate speech but also was unanimous five zero just a few years ago it was a it dealt with a man who had a who had a daughter that was someone that was a special needs child that was played fourth grade basketball never got to play ever and so the last day of the game the last game of the season now team was down by twenty points last minute left dad begging coach let my daughter play just this one time that happened so what happened afterwards he didn't confront her about it about he said mean words and then he said to her this isn't the f and n b a you have prosecuted for that and you can take that took to the supreme court again that's not nice things to say but again but we have the right as vermonters to the speak of injustice to and so so i firmly believe that we shouldn't be prosecuting prosecuting people that are speaking passion and that have every right to do so very want to defend the rule of law to have equal access and justice for everyone regardless of who they are where they come from what white family they were born into and to protect our most vulnerable i also do believe in an open transparent government and making sure that we let the information fall where it may and that justice is served for all vermonters just not those in government and t j donovan your final closing statement well that thanks for having me i'm running for attorney general to really be the voice of regular vermonters who need government to work for them and that's been my record not only as state's attorney but as attorney general these past two years whether it's a small business owner whether it's a victim of crime whether it's somebody who just simply calling our office asking for a question was a guy who called our office who thought that he got ripped off by a mortgage company when he sold his house so a couple hundred bucks but this is the culture i created in the past that call never would have been returned because they would have said in this office it's not our problem what i said was this every call  makes may not be the most important call for us it's the most important goal for that vermonter we get on the phone we talk to the big corporation we get that money back to that vermonter that's never going to show up in a headline that's never going to be a story but to that vermonter that couple hundred bucks that makes a difference that's who i'm fighting for that's the culture i'm seeking to change those are the people who i'm seeking to represent that's why i'm running for reelection i ask for your vote my thanks to t j donovan and jensen wilhoit for joining us here this evening and a reminder that rosemary  not here this evening her name is on the ballot she is continuing to run under the liberty union moniker for a complete list of upcoming calendar of events or a calendar of upcoming candidate forums please visit our web site seventeen dot tv and a reminder that early voting is already underway in the state of vermont you can register to vote and vote all the way up until november sixth do join is tuesday november sixth or election results beginning at seven pm right here at channel seventeen town meeting television i