Editor’s note: This story is by Susan Youngwood, a freelance reporter who lives in Montpelier.
For more than 20 years, Vermont’s auditor was Alexander Acebo, a Republican who was elected like clockwork every two years and whose most controversial move (if you believe Google search) was when he stuck a penny onto a campaign postcard and was accused of trying to buy votes.
Since Acebo left in 1993, the job has been filled by a succession of politicians who viewed it as a stepping stone to higher office. First Democrats Ed Flanagan and Liz Ready. Then Republican Randy Brock replaced Ready in a hard-fought election in 2004; two years later Brock was unseated in a squeaker against Tom Salmon that was decided in a recount.
Salmon, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican last year, has made no secret of his political dreams. But his Democratic opponent this round, Doug Hoffer, is a first-time campaigner who at age 59 professes no interest in any office other than auditor.
Next week, Vermonters will choose between these two number-crunchers who have different visions of what being state auditor means.
“It’s a weird race for a number of reasons,” said Garrison Nelson, a political science professor at the University of Vermont. “One guy wants to be auditor and one guy wants to be somebody else.”
A Vermont Public Radio poll shows the race to be a practical dead heat — Salmon with 38 percent to Hoffer’s 34, with 23 percent undecided.
Both Nelson and Eric Davis, professor emeritus of political science at Middlebury College, predict a nail-biter.
“It’s a close race, but I give the edge to Hoffer,” said Nelson.
“Salmon as incumbent was only at 38 percent support, which is pretty low for an incumbent,” said Davis, who explained that support for an incumbent is typically closer to 50 percent. “That says to me that it’s a close election, and I would not be surprised if Hoffer wins a narrow victory.”
Salmon has gotten some negative press lately. A review of a year’s worth of news stories shows that he was arrested for and pleaded guilty to drunk driving; sent an e-mail about his campaign from his state account; used a state-owned video camera to film campaign events; gave his staff pay raises while others in state government saw pay cuts; and didn’t catch a $500,000 embezzlement case. He has been both criticized and praised for intervening in events outside the purview of the auditor’s job.
Plus, his e-mail exchanges with 7 Days columnist Shay Totten raised some eyebrows, as they were laced with racy language. “#@&? off,” he responded to Totten’s request for more information about that video camera.
Here are the basics about Salmon: His father, Thomas Salmon, was Vermont governor from 1973 to 1977. He grew up in Bellows Falls and graduated from the local high school.
“As a youth, I delivered door to door the Times Reporter, Eagle Times and Brattelboro Reformer,” his campaign Web site describes. “In my teens, I pumped gas, worked as truck driver at Mountain Paper and loaded trucks at St. Johnsbury Trucking.”
According to his Web site, he got a degree in accounting, moved to Los Angeles, quit the accounting profession to become a teacher. After 15 years of enjoying anonymity in California, he moved back to Vermont, becoming a Rockingham selectman before running for auditor.
As a member of the US Naval Reserves, Salmon spent most of 2008 serving in Iraq.
Salmon, 47, has been open about his political ambitions. “The short answer is, I will go as high as God wants me to serve,” he said. The longer answer: “After this election, I’ll either run for one more term, if I win, I’ll run against Bernie [Sanders for U.S. Senate] in 2012 … or exit public service and work on a national level. I was born and bred to serve. I don’t know my next move. I’m not attached to my next move.”
In contrast, Hoffer proclaims no interest in any job other than auditor.
“I’m a little old to be on springboards of any kind,” he says dryly. “The only reason I’m doing this is because the state needs me in that office.”
Hoffer, who is also running on the Progressive ticket, grew up in Connecticut and Florida, graduated from Williams College and earned a law degree from SUNY Buffalo. A job in Burlington brought him to Vermont in 1988. According to his Web site, he’s been a self-employed policy analyst for 17 years, after working for Burlington’s Community & Economic Development Office. He was a private consultant for the auditor’s office under Flanagan, and has researched and written numerous reports — such as the Vermont Job Gap Study for the Peace & Justice Center — and testified frequently before the state Legislature.
Salmon cites his training as a CPA as a prime reason to vote for him; he’s “able to implement best practices,” in the job, he said.
Hoffer stresses his ability to be very focused. “I’ve spent the last 20 years asking annoying questions and upsetting people. … Asking good questions is a skill.”
The race has focused on several issues, including a $500,000 fraud in the Northeast Kingdom.
Catching a $500,000 embezzlement
Last year, the federal government launched a probe into whether a long-term state employee was writing checks to herself and her family. The result: the employee, a supervisor in the Newport office of the Department for Children and Families, was indicted for embezzling $500,000.
Hoffer says the auditor’s office should have caught this fraud. “It went on for five years,” he said. “It shouldn’t be that way.”
“A big part of the auditor’s mission is to find those occasions when internal controls are not in place … to avoid fraud and abuse,” he said. In a press release, he said, “It’s especially disappointing that the state auditor’s office did not see any red flags.”
Salmon defends his office, saying that Vermont is on the “cutting edge” of preventing duplicate payments. He said the employee had been there for 19 years and knew how to fool a 30-year-old computer system.
In fact, he uses Hoffer’s criticism as proof that Hoffer is not fit to be the state auditor.
“It’s clearly the single best example of the lack of (his) auditing experience according to professional standards,” Salmon said. The federal compliance audit “didn’t catch this one fraud. (He’s) insulting accounting professionals by saying an audit done for one purpose didn’t catch a fraud. … Our job is to identify the risk and implement strategies” to catch fraud.
Focusing on performance audits
Hoffer and Salmon agree that the auditor needs to devote more time to performance audits, which assess public programs to determine if the taxpayer investment was worth it.
Salmon said that, thanks to his efforts, a training program is about to begin for state workers so that data can be collected for performance measurements. He says his office is already spending 48 percent of its time on performance audits — a percentage that Hoffer scoffs at.
Hoffer believes the auditor should spend more time evaluating the success of job creation programs, like the Vermont Economic Growth Incentive program. Salmon says he is more interested in examining the effectiveness of the state’s educational system.
“Preposterous,” Hoffer said. “He’s grossly exaggerating.”
Hoffer says he’s more experienced in the types of performance audits the state needs to be executing. “We need better information about our tax expenditures,” he said.
Salmon responds, “He’s insulting people in my office that have a lot more experience than he and I combined. He’s never done an audit based on government auditing standards.”
The two candidates have different priorities. Hoffer believes the auditor should spend more time evaluating the success of job creation programs, like the Vermont Economic Growth Incentive program. Salmon says he is more interested in examining the effectiveness of the state’s educational system.
On VEGI, Salmon says, “We agree the area needs additional clarity.” Two of three audits of the program have been done and the third, which Salmon says will “answer the question of how effective the program is,” will occur in the next two years.
But Hoffer says that Salmon has “ignored the elephant in the room”: How many jobs have been created thanks to this taxpayer investment? “VEGI and the Economic Advancement Tax Incentives have cost the state $50-$100 million in foregone revenue and we don’t know if they were sound long-term investments,” Hoffer said in a press release.
Outside activities
Salmon recently assembled a group of business leaders to address “the crisis in the dairy industry.” Hoffer wonders what this has to do with the job of state auditor.
“I’m a little concerned that the resources in the office are not targeted or maximized,” Hoffer said. “Agriculture is important, but that’s not his job. He does this kind of thing with regularity.”
When the city of Montpelier was trying to recover an overpayment to a construction firm, Salmon joined a city committee charged to investigate the matter. He testified at a public forum on unemployment insurance. He met with Entergy representatives while the legislature was debating a bill requiring the company to put more money into the Vermont Yankee decommissioning fund.
In Hoffer’s view, “Every hour not spent in the auditor’s office … is a lost opportunity.”
Salmon responds that he interprets the mission of the auditor’s department broadly. “I’m a catalyst for good government,” he likes to say. The agriculture department invited him to look at that issue, he said. “It’s almost like a volunteer process,” he said. “That’s good government. It helps giving information to the legislature.”
Salmon takes pride in his ability to “get people to do things.” He even takes credit for getting the Douglas administration and the state legislature to hire the consultant that led to the passage of the Challenge for Change initiative — he lists that as one of his top accomplishments as auditor.
Both candidates want to better communicate the work of the auditor’s office.
Hoffer promises to issue a two-page report each year, showing how much money the state collected, where it came from and how it was used. “I want to tell people in broad strokes if the money was used well,” he said.
Salmon has started putting videos on the auditor’s Web site and has put online a performance report of the auditor’s office, as a model for “what we think everyone in state government should be doing.”
Since most Vermonters are focused on the close contest for governor, the auditor’s race has been fought quietly. Salmon’s party switch has put an interesting spin on the race, said both Nelson and Davis.
Nelson described the switch as a “blatant case of opportunism.” Davis said it irritated the party faithful.
“The feeling among Democratic activists is that Salmon would not have won (in 2006) without the help of the Democrats,” said Davis. The Democrats featured Salmon in a mailing with U.S. Rep Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Sanders, for example. “Among the core Democrats, there’s a sense that Salmon abandoned the party that helped him get elected in the first place.”
Republicans, meanwhile, want to retain the office, but are not overly enthusiastic, Davis said, mentioning a rumor that some Republicans tried this summer to get Brock to run for auditor.
How Vermonters vote on Election Day will affect the character of the auditor’s office.
“Flanagan put politics into the office,” said Nelson. “If Hoffer is elected, we’ll go back to days of a quiet (auditor’s) office.”
