WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Santa Pies Governor at Parade

Santa Pies Governor at Parade

Montpelier, Vermont - July 4, 2008

"Well somebody came out of the crowd in Montpelier and greeted me with a platter of cream of some kind and took right off," explained Gov. Jim Douglas, R-Vermont.

The governor wasn't injured but he was a little messy when he was pied as he marched on State Street in Montpelier's Fourth of July parade Thursday night.

Asked if started him, Douglas replied, "Well it did, but no harm done and I just wiped it off and kept going."

The governor's state police bodyguard started to give chase, but quickly returned to the governor to protect him in case there were other attackers.

Barre City Mayor Thom Lauzon-- who had been marching near the governor-- chased the pie-chucking Santa into the crowd.

"I ran up to him and grabbed him by the throat trying to get him down. I told him to get down. At that point he threw an elbow trying to shake me off. He said, 'you're hurting me.' He threw an elbow, hit me in the face with his elbow, and at that point I got upset. So I kicked him in the back of the leg and proceeded to squeeze the back of his neck and then pushed him down," explained Lauzon.

The mayor says Montpelier police arrived moments later and arrested the Santa who was now being held down by four people.

"As they were picking him up he screamed something about $600 million, but I don't know what he was referring to," said Lauzon.

Police say Santa is Matthew Manning, 22, of Northfield. And he was clutching a fistful of leaflets blasting the governor for vetoing a bill that would have forced Vermont Yankee to set aside millions in advance to decommission the nuke power plant in 2012.

Manning was cited to appear in court on charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct. As for his apparent motive for pieing the governor-- the bill to force Vermont Yankee to pay in advance for decommissioning was sponsored by Gaye Symington, Douglas' Democratic opponent for governor. We called and asked what she thinks about Manning's tactics-- and she had no comment.

As for whether the incident raises questions about the governor's security, State Police in charge of the Governor's security detail were not available for comment today. The governor told us he's always concerned about security, but he feels there has to be a reasonable balance allowing him to interact with the public.

Brian Joyce - WCAX News