In Profile: Will Dubie’s “decent fellow” reputation come through?

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie. Photo by Terry J. Allen

Richard Stockton milled around the Atlantic Aviation waiting area at Burlington International Airport. A tall figure wearing khaki shorts and a collared shirt, he nervously paced back and forth between the living-room style couches and a cubicle that featured a digitized radar screen tracking weather patterns. Early summer storms were passing through New York State, and one appeared to be headed in a direction he didn’t like — toward Bennington.

Stockton, the executive director of the Green Mountain Boy Scouts and an acquaintance of Brian Dubie, had offered to give the Republican candidate for governor a lift – via his small private plane – to Bennington and five other destinations around the state as part of the lieutenant governor’s “Taking off tour” in June. Stockton was worried about visibility because his plane didn’t have the right instrumentation to fly through thick fog.

When Dubie arrived, fresh from a packed campaign event at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds, he carefully weighed his options. Dubie, a commercial airline pilot, observed to his campaign staffers, who were pushing him to make a decision about whether to fly, that the cloudy weather was less than ideal. His biggest concern, however, was Stockton. Dubie immediately picked up on what he called “the vibe,” and sought out Stockton for a tete-a-tete. He apparently paid close attention to the pilot’s concerns: A while later, the lieutenant governor hired a plane from Heritage Aviation.
Dubie, who is a full colonel in the Vermont Air Guard, was the expert here, but he didn’t flaunt his knowledge or make a decision until after he had a chance to talk with Stockton.

Dubie’s unassuming leadership style carries over into politics, too. The lieutenant governor listens first, then persuades, according to his colleagues in the state Senate. This strategy sometimes makes Dubie appear indecisive or uninformed, but that is not the case, according to Sen. Phil Scott, R-Washington, who is running for lieutenant governor.

“Brian is what you see is what you get,” Scott said. “I’ve always respected the way he approaches things. It’s never been confrontational. I’ve never seen him in a position where he tries to manipulate a situation. He’s always forthright.”

Sen. Phil Scott, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor

Scott also describes Dubie as inclusive. “At times you might think he’s naïve — he’s not,” Scott said in an interview. “He’s caring and truly wants to know what you think.”

Unlike his opponent, Peter Shumlin, who has the gift of oratory and appears to relish campaigning, Dubie isn’t a talker, and often appears awkward on the campaign stump. He is naturally reticent, and though he carries on articulate conversations in a one-on-one basis, he tends to become tongue-tied in debates and stump speeches, lapsing into cul-de-sacs of verbal locutions that sound like non sequiturs strung together.

Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, explains his inarticulateness this way: “Some people listen but don’t hear. He listens and hears. He doesn’t make rash decisions, and sometimes it’s easy to dismiss him as being either indecisive or not eloquent. But I think it’s because he really mulls over all the possibilities in his mind.”

Dubie’s “decent fellow,” aw-shucks reputation in the Statehouse appears to be well-deserved, and that in part explains the visceral reaction many pols have had to his aggressively negative advertising and campaign tactics.

Unlike his opponent, Peter Shumlin, who has the gift of oratory and appears to relish campaigning, Dubie isn’t a talker, and often appears awkward on the campaign stump.

Even his supporters have had a tough time reconciling his good-guy street cred with the personal attacks he has made on his opponent.

Flory said the negativity of the campaign “kind of bothered me at first.”

“I thought, Brian, why are you doing this?” Flory said. “Then I’d step back and say what’s he supposed to do, roll over and play dead? You have to stop and remember the general public isn’t aware of what people in politics are aware of. There isn’t an ad that’s been on that we couldn’t have predicted … it’s just that you don’t usually hear it from Brian.”

In the shadow of the Guard

Dubie grew up Catholic in a modest Essex subdivision that backs up to the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds. (“The fairground was literally our back yard,” Dubie said.) His parents were of Irish and French Canadian extraction – and both of their families had long histories in the Burlington area. Dubie says he is a 5th generation Vermonter.

Dubie has working class roots on both sides. His paternal grandfather was employed in the Winooski Woolen mills and was the last man standing at the plant – he literally turned the lights off at the textile factories in the mid-1950s when he took a job as a security officer.

Dubie’s maternal grandfather was the founder of McKenzie meats. His granddad drove a horse and cart to local farms and traded smoked meats for fresh cuts. “It was always a pleasure to travel with my grandfather because he knew all the farmers,” Dubie said. His grandfather always said, “Use fair weights and measures and you’ll never go to hell for prices.” The takeaway for Dubie? “Treat people fairly and drive a tough bargain.”
Dubie’s mother was an emergency room nurse at what was then called the Medical Center of Vermont, now Fletcher Allen Health Care.

His father, Clem, was an insurance agent with Metropolitan Life who collected premiums every Friday night from the “gin” mills in Winooski. He gave up a promotion and an opportunity to move his large family to New York City in order to raise his seven children in the Burlington area.

Clem took a job as a personnel officer with the Vermont Air Guard, and labor negotiations were a frequent topic of conversation around the Dubies’ kitchen table. He learned that “there’s rules and there’s regulations, but there’s people, and you’ve got to figure out how to apply rules and regulations to real people who have real situations. That takes some sensitivity and openness.”

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, left, stands with Ernie Pomerleau

Today, all but one of the six surviving siblings – four sons and two daughters – live in Vermont. Though his parents have died, Dubie describes his siblings as emotionally and geographically tight. One of his sisters is a nurse, another is a social worker. Michael Dubie is adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard. Brian is a partner in a sugaring operation in Fairfield run by another brother.

Dubie graduated from Essex Community Education Center in 1977 and studied mechanical engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. After three years, Dubie decided to leave in order to fly F-4 fighter bombers for the Vermont National Guard. Questions have been raised about his early departure – a public records request placed by VTdigger.org shows that Dubie was a good student and that he left the Air Force Academy for personal reasons and on good terms.

“I actually went to the director of admissions at the (Academy) and said I’d like to fly for the Vermont Guard, and I said if it doesn’t work out I’d like to come back to the Academy, and this Col. Jackson said to me, ‘Son, it sounds to me like you want to have your cake and eat it, too.’”

Dubie never looked back. He studied engineering at the University of Vermont for three straight semesters and passed a difficult (heat and mass transfer) oral exam after just two months. He graduated in 1981 with a degree in mechanical engineering, then took a job with Goodrich Aerospace in Vergennes. He continued to fly F-4s and, later, F-16s for the Guard.

“I grew up in the Guard,” Dubie said. “But my father … was very hands-off with kids. He was hands-on with discipline. He was a colonel in the Guard, but he never ever pushed us to make those kinds of decisions — he was always like, hey, Brian, whatever you decide, wait two weeks before you announce it so you have time to settle, but it’s your decision, it’s your life.”

Another factor, besides the passion for F-4s? Dubie is something of a homebody. He couldn’t bear the idea of spending 10 years on the road as an Air Force flyboy. “I didn’t have a problem with the commitment,” Dubie recalls. “I hadn’t met my wife (yet), but I knew I wanted to raise my kids
in Vermont.”

Two years after graduation, Dubie did in fact meet his wife, Penny Bolio. They married in 1986 and settled in Essex Junction. The couple has four children: Emily, 22; Jack, 21; Matthew, 20; and Casey, 18.

In 1988, Dubie became a captain for American Airlines. He has continued to fly full-time throughout his career in politics. In all, he has logged more than 2,500 hours in fighter aircraft, according to his Web site.

Dubie is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and he serves as an officer in the National Security Emergency Preparedness Agency. He won a number of awards for his service in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack and Hurricane Katrina.

Dubie’s early political career

Dubie fell into politics the hard way – by serving on a school board — the Essex Junction Prudential Committee, to be exact. He recalls the board met 117 times his first year in 1995. By year two, he had been elected the chair. He wasn’t happy with the way the board had micromanaged the school, and he pushed for fewer meetings and a big-picture approach.

“I said … we’re not going to pick out the paint in the lunchroom,” Dubie recalls. “We’re going to set the expectations for the school district, and we’re going to hold our superintendent accountable for achieving those expectations, and as a consequence. … The people who elected me shared this vision; it wasn’t me just saying I’m going to impose my will. People I served with said we need to change this because we have an unhealthy pattern here.”

As a result of these changes, Dubie says he was able to recruit board members, including long-time friend and political ally Kevin Dorn, who has served as secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development in the Douglas administration.

According to Andy Bromage’s account in Seven Days, Dubie cut costs over the course of his five-year tenure as chair, and voters responded by passing the school’s budgets.

Gov. Jim Douglas, left, campaigns with Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, Oct. 9, 2010. Photo by Terry J. Allen

The Burlington Free Press reported that Dubie “advocated for consolidation” of Essex Junction and Essex Town schools and “supported the use of caps as tools to curb school spending.”
Consolidation of school districts is now a hot political statewide topic.
The lieutenant governor has carefully avoided statements about mandatory mergers of supervisory union districts or schools. In his 10-point plan, “Pure Vermont,” he writes, “district and school consolidation must be a serious option as taxpayers struggle to fund high overhead in districts
large and small.” Dubie has argued that voluntary merger efforts now under way don’t go far enough. (A new law creates tax incentives for school districts that merge town boards into regional educational districts.)

Dubie has proposed a 2 percent cap on education spending.

Dubie says his school board experiences shaped his perspective on state government and are directly applicable to the challenges facing state government.

“There’s real parallels there between the Legislature and the school board,” Dubie said. “What I used to say on the school board was the budgets we passed were important and the policies that we wrote were important. The most important thing we did was mentor respectful dialog among five individuals that felt passionate about educating children. The way we interacted set the tone for the superintendent that interacted with principals and the way that principals interact with teachers and parents and schoolchildren.”

Dorn encouraged him to run for state Senate. He chose instead to run for lieutenant governor. The school board chairmanship was Dubie’s only political experience when he made an unsuccessful bid for the seat in 2000 against the three-term incumbent, Doug Racine, a Democrat. Dorn ran Dubie’s campaign.

“I did the math, and I said at the time there was no one running for lieutenant governor, so through a series of conversations, I said if I’m going to run, although it may be a greater geographic challenge running statewide, I investigated the responsibilities of the lieutenant governor and the demands of the office, and (I said) … I could run for this.”

Two years later, when Racine ran for governor, Dubie seized the opportunity to campaign for the slot again – this time against Shumlin, his current opponent in the governor’s race, and Progressive Anthony Pollina. He won with 41 percent of the vote; Shumlin, the Democrat, garnered 32 percent of the ballots; and Pollina received 25 percent of the votes.

A ceremonial office

The lieutenant governor is the presiding officer of the state Senate for the legislative session, which runs from January to April, but the role is otherwise undefined. It’s a part-time job, and the pay is roughly $60,000 a year.
The lieutenant governor only casts ballots in the Vermont Senate to break a tie. Consequently, Dubie does not have a voting record from his tenure in office, like his opponent, Sen. Peter Shumlin.

Dubie has served for eight years, and he has been involved in a number of extracurricular activities, including a platform for international trade missions to Canada, China and Cuba. He has also chaired the Homeland Security Advisory Council and the Governor’s Commission on Healthy Aging. In 2006, he founded the Vermont Aerospace and Aviation Association.

Though as lieutenant governor Dubie was not directly involved in the Douglas administration, he says he was a member of the governor’s cabinet.

He says he participated in the administration’s 2009 budget negotiations, in which the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto to approve cuts in income taxes for all brackets and $26 million in additional taxes for capital gains and estate income. He also was present at press conferences and negotiations in the waning days of the 2010 legislative session, pushing for a repeal of the aforementioned tax increases, to which the legislative leaders, including Shumlin, eventually assented.

Gov. Jim Douglas. Photo by Terry J. Allen

“In cabinet meetings there are free-wheeling discussions among all the cabinet members, secretaries and commissioners,” Dubie said. “I guess what’s important for Vermonters to know is, I’ve been at the table with cabinet discussions for eight years. I have built relationships with secretaries and commissioners.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to participate at the highest levels in the state,” Dubie said. “There is only one governor, and I have not been the governor, I’ve been the lieutenant governor. That experience has been a great opportunity for me to find out how decisions … are made.”

Dubie said he has worked collaboratively with Douglas and has tried to be a good follower. He has disagreed with the governor on a few issues, including wind power generation. Douglas opposes “industrial wind”; Dubie has said he thinks it needs to be part of the state’s energy mix.

“I’ve tried not to compete with the governor; I’ve tried to complement the governor,” Dubie said.

He takes credit for cultivating the state’s close relationship with Quebec and points to the Hydro-Quebec deal as the fruits of his labor. In addition, Dubie negotiated a trade deal for $6 million worth of Vermont milk and 80 heifers to Cuba as part of a trade mission. He has been bullish on cow power projects, and he has stepped in to help with economic development support for businesses around the state, most notably NRG Systems in Barre.

In addition to his work as lieutenant governor, Dubie has continued full-time employment as a pilot for American Airlines and as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. Airline pilots are required by the Federal Aviation Association to fly no more than 100 hours per month; most fly between 75-90 hours a month. Pilots spend 360 hours a month away from their home base, according to the Airline Pilot’s Association.

According to a story by David Gram of the Associated Press, based on data from public records requests, Dubie missed the opening gavel for the Vermont State Senate 25 out of 60 times over the course of the 2010 legislative session.

Dubie told Gram that he missed two days of Senate business over the course of his eight years in office because of his employment with American Airlines.

Dubie earned the respect of many of his colleagues in the Senate. Sen. Dick Mazza, a moderate Democrat who has represented Grand Isle since 1972, describes the lieutenant governor as “a real hard worker.” Mazza, who supports Shumlin, said Dubie bent over backwards to achieve partisan balance and treated senators fairly.

Dubie, who is the middle child in a pack of seven kids, said his “mother raised me to bring people together.” In the middle of a stump speech or debate, Dubie often recites his mom’s advice: “Brian you have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Use them in that order.”

“He really focused on his job … And always listened to the concerns of both parties,” Mazza said. “We had a great relationship. He took his job very seriously. Vermonters can be proud of the work he did as lieutenant governor.”

But Mazza says in the election, Dubie has taken on a different persona, that the man we’re seeing now isn’t the “real” Brian Dubie. (The candidate and his campaign have relentlessly assailed Shumlin in a series of personal attacks in ads, press releases and a Web site dedicated to allegations of “ethical lapses.”)

See related story, “Digger Tidbits: Into the swirl of septic; the dirt machine.”
http://vtdigger.org/2010/10/25/digger-tidbits-into-the-swirl-of-septic-the-dirt-machine/
“I guess it goes with the territory running for governor,” Mazza said. “It wouldn’t be my approach, but everyone has their own style of running for office.”

Corry Bliss, Dubie's campaign manager. Photo by Terry J. Allen

Mazza’s Democratic colleagues characterized the negativity of Dubie’s campaign in starker terms. In a recent press conference, Racine said, “Dubie has disappeared from Vermont, and what you see is a Brian Dubie most of us don’t recognize.”

Sen. Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille, pinned the blame on out-of-state operatives. “I don’t know who this person is, but this is not Vermont, this is real outside Vermont, this is real nasty, and this isn’t OK,” she said.

Though most of the negativity emanates from the campaign, much of the meat of Dubie’s public statements in debates and speeches revolve around attacks on Shumlin. Sen. Phil Scott talks about Dubie’s sense of honor, which can be interpreted as a keen sense of personal dignity, even pride,
particularly about his reputation for personal integrity. When Shumlin accused Dubie of looking out for the shareholders of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant instead of Vermonters at a Burlington Free Press debate, the Republican snapped at Shumlin for daring to question his motives.

Sen. Peg Flory said she’ll be glad when it’s over — one way or another.

“It’s been a long campaign,” Flory said. “If Brian says something negative, everybody is down his back, and all you hear is Brian’s negative campaign, but I look at the ads and Peter’s doing just as much negative campaigning, and, in fact, I find it even more offensive, but you don’t hear that oh, Peter’s being negative. Is it a bias, or are they picking on him, or is the press being unfair?

“I think it’s more basic,” Flory said. “You never heard this from Brian — he was always in the back seat. He’s such a nice guy; it’s unusual to hear it.”

Flory compared Shumlin to Bernie Sanders. “He has ranted and raved his whole career,” Flory said of Shumlin. “Whether you agree with him or not, that’s his style.”

Editor’s note: 9:10 a.m. Nov. 1, 2010 add-in: Mazza supports Shumlin in the election.