Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, dropped out of the race for lieutenant governor this week for personal reasons. Zuckerman, an organic farmer who raises 14 acres of vegetables on 150 acres in Hinesburg, says the farm didn’t make any money last summer because of poor weather conditions, and a statewide campaign would have made it difficult for him to ensure his operation is profitable this summer. The 38-year-old House representative has served in the Legislature for 14 years.
Vtdigger.org caught up with Zuckerman to get a sense of what abandoning his race for lieutenant governor means for him personally and professionally.
DZ: It’s a relief, and it’s disappointing at the same time. I really enjoy policy and politics. That’s not to say I’m not going to run for anything yet; I don’t know what I’m doing. The state Senate is a possibility, but for now I just want to get a month of relief from the process.
Anybody who thinks this kind of decision is made lightly or without serious contemplation really has no idea what it takes. I’ve for three months been calling people, meeting with people, chewing on the possibility.
It is a tremendously complex decision that I think certainly many Vermonters recognize, but there are some who really just don’t get it, and it’s a hard decision because I really have strong convictions on a number of issues the state is facing, and I’m hopeful that someone will run and win who will carry many of those convictions, but each one of us as an individual can never be truly replaced by another person. We all have different perspectives. There’s a little bit of a feeling of letting people down. Some people will be thrilled, but some people (I know) I’m letting down, and there’s a little bit of angst about that.
The more you’re here, the better you get at the job, and the more people look to you as a leader.
I was potentially going to the next step of leadership on many issues for a lot of people who are going to be suffering over the next couple of years in this state. So I’m taking my voice out of that equation, and it’s somewhat of a relief but somewhat of a disappointment.
Q. What are the issues you have the most conviction about right now?
DZ: Well, I think one has to be looking at the budget and the people who are going to suffer with the budget cuts that are going to come. I mean, there’s no doubt about that right now. There are a lot of vulnerable people in the state of Vermont, and very few people are looking at our current budget situation as OK; let’s truly assess the needs that are out there. It’s all about we have this many dollars, can we make the budget work, and that’s a very different way of looking at it. I think that’s going to be a huge problem over the next couple of years.
Our environment and energy are huge issues. The decisions we make now … on a state scale, on a national scale, on a global scale, we don’t have any time left to change our energy consumption. We’ve got to do that.
The third one is health care, and it’s not in any particular order. I think health care is tied directly to the budget. Last year, premiums between private employers, public employers and private plans, Vermonters paid out $300 million in additional premium costs. When premiums go up 10 percent, it costs us $300 million. (To put that in perspective,) we raised taxes by $28 million last year.
I mean Vermonters are just getting crushed by their premiums, but they just accept it because there’s nothing they can do. The fear of living without insurance is too great. As we look at the budget long-term, health care is it. To not deal with health care while we’re dealing with these budget cuts is frightening to me. I’m hoping we will deal with health care in a really comprehensive way.
I’d say those are the three areas: health care, energy, budget. They all tie into jobs. I could say jobs, jobs, jobs. We could all say that, but what underlies the foundation of those jobs? I think those things do.
Q. How much time did you invest in exploring a run for lieutenant governor? How much money would you have had to raise?
DZ: Between shopping it around to people, talking with my family, waking up at night … I’ve put a couple hundred hours into it. I think that’s what people should be doing because you have to figure out if you can raise the money. I was thinking $300,000 to $350,000.
You have to figure out if you’ve got issues that both you have experience on and that you can articulate well and bring to the people, and you’ve got to figure out what your image is and if who you are presents well and what areas are strengths and weaknesses where you can be attacked or exploited, whether fairly or unfairly.
You’ve got to decide if you want to go through that rigmarole. I was chewing on a very different methodology being that I’m a Progressive running in a Democratic Party. I had to weigh all of that. Many
Progressives would be disappointed and wouldn’t work for me. I don’t think there are many in that camp, because of my years of service and my dedication to those issues Progressives care about, and Progressives are issue-based and my issues wouldn’t change a lick.
I was going to run in the Democratic Primary, and then get the write-in if there was someone on the Progressive ballot or if there was nobody there to seek the Progressive nomination to then run as both. But then I was also having to explore with Democrats. Am I going to hit an ice wall here? Or is this something that could be warmly received.
Q. Did you hit an ice wall?
DZ: No, I called a dozen legislators … and I got a pretty good response, which was a surprise to me, not because of our relationship but because of party loyalty stuff. And then I spoke with Washington County
Democrats, and that was a good discussion. I had three more lined up in the next three weeks, so I have to call them.
That was a whole exploration of party people and committees and legislators because it is partly the insider game right now. So speaking with issue advocates, they fall one side or the other and you can kind of guess how. But they’re really issue based, so my question to them was in the primary where you’re going to have far more voters than normal, more party people are going to make up a smaller percentage of those votes, so therefore if there became anti-Zuckerman voters who coalesced, which I don’t think there would, they’d be a smaller number in a primary with 35,000 votes. If there are 3,000 that are no-way to David, well, winning the majority out of the rest of those was a realistic possibility.
Whether it’s (gay) marriage, environment, labor, housing, agriculture – I’ve worked with those constituencies for 14 years. I’ve worked those issues. I’ve met with those advocates. I’ve done real outside-the-building organizing, and some of those issues were 10 years ago, but people don’t forget. And I think I brought that to the table that so far the others haven’t done.
Q. How does your work at the Legislature affect your business?
DZ: I pay more to replace myself with farm labor, especially the last couple of years as the farm has gotten bigger, than I make here working at the Statehouse.
Most Vermonters don’t have to talk about what they make or what their businesses do or don’t do. It’s a lot to being a public servant. I love it, but it’s a lot of work; it’s a lot of exposure, transparency that’s
important, but it takes a toll.
