Rutland Forward, a registered political action committee (PAC), has positioned itself as a driving force in local elections. However, a review of their campaign finance records raises serious concerns, including missing filings, financial shortfalls, and unreported expenditures.

Key Questions Raised by the Data

• Where is their 2025 campaign finance expenditures report?
• How did they spend nearly $11,000 in 2024 while only reporting $4,000 in donations?
• Why do several of their endorsed candidates have incomplete or questionable financial disclosures?

For a group that claims to support transparency and civic engagement, their own financial records tell a different story.

Rutland Forward’s Financial Discrepancies: Missing Filings, Negative Balances, and Unaccounted-for Expenses

Campaign Finance History

• 2022 (General Election) – $5,185 in donations, $3,997 in expenditures
• 2023 (Rutland Annual Meeting) – No listing
• 2024 (Annual Meeting) – $4,000 in donations, $10,973.46 in expenditures, ending with a negative balance of -$6,973.46
• 2025 – No listing
• [CORRECTION] 2026 (General Election) – $976.03 beginning balance and a $476 in-kind donation reported with no expenditures

Rutland Forward has yet to file any 2025 campaign finance expenditures, despite actively supporting candidates in the upcoming election.

Unreported Mailers and Political Events

1. Rutland Forward, in cooperation with its endorsed candidates, announced it is hosting a ‘Rock the Vote’ event in February 2024.
   • There is no campaign finance report listing any expenses related to this event.
2. Multiple sources report receiving mailers from Rutland Forward.
   • While the PAC has reported expenditures for postcards in the past, its 2025 financial records remain missing.
3. Only one recorded expenditure to the Rutland Herald—$1,400 in 2024.
   • Despite being an active PAC since 2021, this is the only recorded payment to the city’s primary newspaper.

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Campaign Finance Law: What Vermont Says About PAC Coordination

Vermont law places strict regulations on Political Action Committees (PACs) to prevent excessive influence over elections. One key provision states:

“When a political party or a PAC that recruits or endorses candidates conducts an activity that primarily benefits six or fewer candidates associated with the party or PAC, the law will presume that the expenditure is related and count it as a contribution. The party or PAC can overcome this presumption by demonstrating that the expenditure was not facilitated, solicited, or approved by the candidates who benefited from it.”

This means that if a PAC’s spending directly supports six or fewer candidates, it is automatically presumed to be coordinated. The burden is on the PAC to prove that its spending was truly independent.

However, this does NOT mean that spending on seven or more candidates automatically makes a PAC’s actions legal.

🔹 If a PAC’s spending is closely tied to a specific group of candidates—regardless of whether there are six, seven, or ten—the state can still investigate whether the PAC and candidates coordinated their spending.
🔹 Coordinated expenditures are considered contributions and must be reported as such.
🔹 If a PAC structures its donations in a way that avoids triggering automatic legal presumptions, but still acts in close coordination with candidates, that can still be a campaign finance violation.

In 2022, Rutland Forward provided financial support to exactly seven candidates, appearing to push the boundaries of Vermont’s campaign finance law. The fact that their donations were structured just above the “six or fewer” rule raises serious ethical questions. If their 2025 funding is again concentrated on a select group of candidates, their financial structure deserves further scrutiny.

Who Is Paying for Rutland Forward?

According to the Rutland Forward website, the following candidates have directly funded the PAC:

• Anna Tadio (Alderman candidate)
• Michael Talbott (Alderman candidate)
• Gina Grove (Alderman candidate)
• Sara Doenges (School Board candidate)
• Marybeth Lennox-Levins (School Board candidate)
• Jennifer Rondinone (School Board candidate)

If these candidates are financially supporting the PAC, how much of Rutland Forward’s spending directly benefited their campaigns? Are these payments properly reported as campaign expenditures? According to the Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance page, as of February 2025, none of those candidates were recorded as having donated to Rutland Forward.

With Rutland Forward’s missing financial disclosures, these questions remain unanswered.

We Reached Out to Rutland Forward for Comment—Their Response Raises More Questions

After our inquiry, Rutland Forward responded and provided a screenshot from the Vermont Secretary of State’s database, which showed a current cash balance of $935.03 and an in-kind contribution of $476.70, filed on February 17, 2025.

While we appreciate their response, this raises a major new question:

💰 Where did this opening balance of $935.03 come from?

The last known balance for Rutland Forward at the end of the 2024 cycle was -$6,973.46. However, no monetary contributions have been recorded in their filings that would account for this sudden positive balance.

This discrepancy leaves several critical questions unanswered:

• What transactions cleared the -$6,973.46 deficit?
• Were there unreported monetary contributions?
• Was the Secretary of State’s database manually adjusted?
• If donations or expenditures were made, why aren’t they listed in the PAC’s reports?

Rutland Forward’s response does not explain how the PAC went from nearly $7,000 in debt to having a positive balance, nor have they filed any recorded expenditures for the 2025 election cycle.

📌 We have reached out to the Vermont Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance Division for clarification and will provide updates as more information becomes available.ents.

What Happens Next?

Rutland Forward has positioned itself as a major player in local elections, yet its own financial transparency is lacking.

With unaccounted-for spending, missing finance reports, and candidates failing to disclose key expenditures, Rutland residents deserve answers.

FYIVT has spoken with the Vermont Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance Division and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office regarding these findings. We have not received follow-ups to our conversations as of publication, but we will update readers as more information becomes available.

Stay tuned. On Thursday morning at 6 AM, FYIVT will release an even deeper investigation into how political funding in Rutland may extend beyond Vermont—raising questions about out-of-state money and PAC coordination.

💥 Transparency matters. Rutland Forward should clarify its finances to the public.

If you found this investigation valuable and want to support independent journalism in Vermont, become a supporter for just $5/month today!

Dave Soulia | FYIVT

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