LOCALmatters
No More Mr. Nice Guy? Doug “Quiet Man” Racine says he’s tough enough to be governor B Y A ND Y BROMAGE
Five of the six may be almost indistinguishable on policy issues. But the men and women competing to be the next governor of Vermont are vastly different people. And their individual stories may better indicate how they’d govern than any number of speeches, videos and slogans. To that end, Seven Days reporter Andy Bromage has been getting to know the gubernatorial candidates, at their jobs, in their homes and on the campaign trail. In the third of six profiles, he shines a light on Doug Racine, who tried — and failed — to get the big job eight years ago.
14 LOCAL MATTERS
SEVEN DAYS
06.30.10-07.07.10
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
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he subject of buprenorphine — a drug that’s used to wean addicts off heroin — came up during a recent candidate debate in Burlington. The moderator asked all five Democrats running for governor how they would address its increasing presence in Vermont. “Bupe” has become the most abused drug in the prison population and one of the most frequently sold on the street. When it was Senator Doug Racine’s turn to answer, he didn’t dance around the question or veer off into a canned stump speech. He looked straight at the crowd and said he didn’t know. “I will tell you what kind of a governor I’m going to be,” Racine began. “I don’t completely understand the problem you presented in your question, so I’m not going to speculate on what a solution might be … I’m not going to do it off the cuff.” Politicians are famous for giving nonanswers to questions they think are too controversial, or haven’t thought through. Racine, a Richmond Democrat, can obfuscate with the best of them. But his honest response to the drug query is more typical of the so-called “Quiet Man” who’s been in Vermont politics for the better part of three decades. Even when he does have “the answer,” Racine doesn’t sugarcoat it. He believes Vermonters want real information about the state’s toughest problems, even when it hurts. So he’s sticking his neck out to talk about some of the most politically radioactive topics, such as raising taxes and growing state government. Unlike his four Democratic opponents — Secretary of State Deb Markowitz; former state senator and Google executive Matt Dunne; and state senators Peter Shumlin and Susan Bartlett — Racine is floating
new and higher taxes as fixes for solving Vermont’s continuing budget crisis. He says that taxing soft drinks and Internet sales, or even raising the rooms and meals tax by half a point, could help balance the books and avert additional cuts in state services that Vermonters have come to depend on. Racine is a big proponent of the “social safety net” and believes the wealthy should shoulder their fair share of recession-related pain. He understands the risks of that position. Taxes are “evil” in the minds of many voters, he admits, and the mere suggestion of raising them has sunk many a political campaign. His other budget-conscious brainstorm — tapping the state’s $60 million rainy day fund — is politically unpopular, too; the Senate recently shot down Racine’s proposal to use those funds to close the deficit. Racine maintains he’s the only realistic candidate in the running for Vermont’s top job. The solutions his opponents are pitching — growing the economy, controlling health care costs, reining in prison spending — are all good ideas, he says, but won’t balance the budget in the short term. “I’m going to tell people what I think, and I’m going to treat them as intelligent human beings,” Racine says. “I’m not going to be fearful or hide what I think is good public policy because some people might be able to use it against me.” In today’s sound-bite culture, that kind of candor is risky. And Racine has a lot to lose. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows him in second place among Democrats in hypothetical matchups against Republican candidate Brian Dubie, the popular lieutenant governor. Racine has also secured coveted endorsements from the state’s three biggest labor organizations — the AFL-
CIO, the National Education Association teachers’ union and the Vermont State Employees Association. On Monday, the Vermont League of Conservation Voters gave him the nod. Racine is doing everything he can to avoid a repeat of his last campaign for governor, in 2002, when he lost to Republican Jim Douglas by a margin of 45 to 42 in a three-way race with Con Hogan. In hindsight, Racine says he made the mistake of letting the race become a referendum on Howard Dean and failed to clearly articulate his vision for the state. Racine also concedes he was too laidback. The consensus was that Racine didn’t hit back hard enough when Douglas labeled him a “flip-flopper.” The late Seven Days columnist Peter Freyne subsequently dubbed him “The Quiet Man.” Racine insists he’s a better candidate
this time around — one capable of winning. He has hired Amy Shollenberger, an experienced community organizer, to run his field operation and political strategist Joe Trippi, who made Howard Dean a national star, to repackage him as a fighter. “I’m very clear about who I am,” Racine said during an interview last week in the cavernous Winooski storefront that has become his campaign headquarters. “I’m more willing to share my passions and my feelings and my emotions about issues than I ever have been before.” Can Racine convince voters he’s toughened up enough to lead Vermont? He sure is trying. Talking with a reporter, he taps his index finger on a wooden table to punctuate his points about Vermont’s struggling middle class and the need for better-paying jobs. He is clearly passionate but doesn’t