That’s according to Doug Racine, a former lieutenant governor and secretary of the Agency of Human Services. “Having launched many state Senate campaigns myself, this is a very impressive turnout,” Racine said.
Roughly 75 people packed the basement at the St. John’s Club on Lake Champlain to show their support for the Norwich native and Columbia Law School graduate who has enmeshed himself in party politics, serving most recently as chairman for the Chittenden County Democrats.
In addition to Racine, Scherr was feted by a veritable who’s who of local Democrats, including John Tracy, state director for Sen. Patrick Leahy; Sen. Ginny Lyons; State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan, who is running for attorney general; as well as several state representatives and city councilors.
Senate Pro Tempore John Campbell, who made the trip from Windsor County, introduced Scherr to the audience as a “future leader” in the Democratic Party, and a person with the compassion to use elected office to help those most in need.
Campbell, who is also a deputy state’s attorney in Windsor County, said he’s seen Scherr’s compassion in action in the courtroom. Scherr holds a contract there with the Defender General’s Office to serve as conflict counsel in cases where local public defenders have a conflict of interest.
Scherr said his work as a defense and family law attorney representing low-income Vermonters would inform his candidacy and governing style if he were to be elected. Two central issues for his campaign will be social justice and making Vermont more affordable.
Former Rep. Suzi Wizowaty, the executive director of Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, said she supports Scherr because not only does he understand the criminal justice system, “he understands the role of poverty in getting people into the system and the additional obstacles people face as a result of poverty when they’re coming out.”
Scherr said that his work brings him into contact with people in “some of the most difficult situations imaginable,” and the same issues crop up in case after case. “Those are policy problems,” he said, which need to be addressed through legislation.
“I want to serve in the state Senate because I will bring a clear eye and a passion for those issues around social justice and around poverty,” he said, “For me this isn’t just statistics and data, these are real people, real stories, real faces that I see and hear and work with every day.”
“Vermont is a caring place…but we can do better,” he said. It’s one of 11 states that spends more money on incarceration than higher education, Scherr said — a trend he’d like to see reversed.
Scherr did not shy away from specifics, suggesting that Vermont change its laws to make it more difficult for prosecutors to try older teenagers as adults. Once it happens, it’s difficult to bring that young person back to the juvenile side of the docket, and if convicted, they’re often saddled with a criminal record that follows them for life, he said.
“Let’s make sure that when our young people turn 18 they can wipe that record clean. If they mess up again they’ll be consequences,” Scherr said.
He said he would also like to change the prison furlough program allow people in on work-release to drive cars. In a rural state, not being able to drive makes furlough participants less employable and often a burden on their family or support structure.
Scherr closed by saying he was moved by clients who had pushed for their day in court against his counsel in cases where he was quite sure the outcome would not be in their favor.
“What I realized was that these were individuals who have never had a voice in the rooms where decision get made,” he said, and by going to trial “they go to have their truth told to power.”
“So I know from the work that I do everyday that being somebody’s voice, that representing people, is an honor and a privilege,” he said, adding that he will bring compassion and energy to that opportunity if elected.
Scherr is the first candidate to throw his hat in the race for one of six Chittenden County seats. Already one incumbent, Sen. David Zuckerman, has said he will seek the Progressive and Democratic nominations in a bid for lieutenant governor.
Several people in attendance, who declined to be named, said they are hearing that Senate Majority Leader Phil Baruth, who also represents Chittenden County, is likely to run for the open lieutenant governor seat as well.
That would mean at least two open Senate seats in Chittenden County.
