Four men, none of whom have large followings in the party, have said they are exploring possible runs for the Democratic nomination: Martin O'Malley and Lincoln Chafee, the former governors of Maryland and Rhode Island; Jim Webb, the former senator from Virginia; and Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and self-described socialist.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's nomination in 2016, also voted against the bill for similar reasons.
Appearing on ABC at the end of a week in which he declared a run for the Democratic nomination well to the left of Clinton, the independent senator from Vermont said on his first day as a candidate he had attracted 100,000 supporters and raised $1.5m at an average donation of $43.
Vermont offers an excellent example of how GPI and GDP differ in practice.
The route to accelerating Vermont toward genuine progress is uncharted.
A biologist at the University of Vermont, Heinrich was initially confused.
She makes a good point later that the state exchanges set up under health care reform would remain intact, allowing states to pursue their own options – and many of them might try out their own single-payer systems, as Vermont is now.
The Vermont independent senator Bernie Sanders says he will decide by March whether to launch a 2016 presidential campaign and, if so, whether he will seek the Democratic nomination.
Devine, who previously worked for Sanders, said he plans to work for the Vermont senator if he enters the race.
So it should come as no surprise that Vermont has been joined by 19 other US states and dozens of nations in working on "beyond GDP" metrics.
Vermont state treasurer Beth Pearce said institutional investors are growing more concerned about the topic, and Exxon management's strategy for diversifying its production beyond oil and gas has been "wholly inadequate".
