They include men who went on to become U.S. senator, like Republicans George Aiken and Robert Stafford. Madeleine Kunin served in the No. 2 post between 1979 and 1983 and went on to become Vermont’s first female governor. Howard Dean, who served between 1987 and 1991, became governor upon the death of Richard Snelling and won election five times before running an insurgent campaign for president in 2004.
The past five lieutenant governors have all run for governor, including the current No. 2, Republican Phil Scott, who is in the final hours of a close race with Democrat Sue Minter to replace outgoing Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The lieutenant governorship is an office that has its responsibilities — presiding over the Senate, casting tie-breaking votes and determining committee assignments as a member of the Senate’s powerful Committee on Committees.
The most important part of the job, largely unspoken, is to be prepared to take over if the governor dies or is unable to serve. When the governor is out of state, the lieutenant governor temporarily takes over the top job.
One benefit of being lieutenant governor — at least in the minds of many past officeholders — is to boost your statewide profile and use the position as a steppingstone to higher office.
Both Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman and Republican Randy Brock deny they are running for lieutenant governor as a way to advance. But throughout his time in the office, Scott would frequently tell reporters that serving as lieutenant governor didn’t mean he necessarily wanted the top job.
And while the two current contenders make comparable claims, they are clearly fired up to do more than preside over the Senate or just do the other procedural work that is part of the job.
Brock, 72, has been in statewide races before.
He served as auditor for one term — replaced by Democrat Thomas Salmon in 2007 after a razor-close race. Brock lost a 2012 gubernatorial bid against Shumlin by 60,000 votes. (He served two terms in the Vermont Senate between the two losses.)
The 45-year-old Zuckerman, on the other hand, is now testing his popularity with a statewide run after nearly 20 years in the Legislature — including the last four in the Senate.
It’s easy to squint into the future and see him running to replace U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders whenever the 75-year-old democratic socialist retires, or perhaps for Congress if Peter Welch leaves that seat — though for either office, he would face a phalanx of Democratic contenders.
Zuckerman and Sanders have both had their run-ins with the Democratic Party regarding their party status, and both share a similar political ideology.
Historically, the lieutenant governor’s job has been dominated by Republicans, even after Vermont started turning politically left. Of the last 60 lieutenant governors, only five have been Democrats.
Still, Eric Davis, a retired Middlebury College political science professor who has analyzed Vermont elections for five decades, said Friday that the race may be tighter than polls suggest.
“I’m not sure it’s going to be a blowout,” Davis said. “I think what’s happening in the lieutenant governor’s race is that the media attention has been overwhelmingly on the presidency and the governorship. And if those races are both tight, the amount of media space or minutes or whatever for the other Vermont races is just less, so partisanship becomes more important.”
If voters do prioritize partisanship on Tuesday and Scott beats Minter, then Brock may benefit. But it might not be that simple, Davis cautioned, for Brock “comes across as a more traditional Republican who may not have as broad an appeal as Scott might have.”
And while Scott’s popularity may push up Brock’s numbers slightly, the two have rarely appeared together throughout the long campaign season.
Meanwhile, Zuckerman has been hugging Sanders at packed Democratic Party rallies around the state.
The 2016 presidential candidate — who won the Vermont primary with 86 percent of the vote — has been a strong supporter of Zuckerman throughout the election season, in terms of both fundraising and rhetoric.
“David is one of the outstanding members of the Legislature,” Sanders said when he endorsed the Hinesburg farmer in August. “He has helped lead the fight in Montpelier for livable wages, family-supported agriculture, GMO labeling, sustainable energy, marriage equality and other issues important to working families.”
Sanders sent out a fundraising pitch on behalf of Zuckerman in late October that brought in roughly $20,000 from 2,800 donors in the first six hours. Zuckerman has raised $326,000 this campaign, nearly twice as much as Brock, who has brought in $177,000.
Zuckerman has received more than a dozen endorsements from progressive political groups in the state, including the state’s chapters of the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.
(After an impassioned endorsement from environmentalist Bill McKibben, Zuckerman gestured to his heart, saying, “I don’t even know how to react.”)
A recent colorful letter to the Rutland Herald about Brock came from Norman Gosselin, of Georgia, who said he developed enormous respect for the candidate when he was Brock’s driver during his 2012 gubernatorial run.
“He always insisted that we drive at safe speeds,” Gosselin wrote. “This alone makes him remarkable, when compared to the speedsters with state plates traveling I-89 between Burlington and Montpelier. Randy always reached his destination, safely and without risk to the health and well-being of his fellow Vermonters. Montpelier could use a leader like that.”
Gosselin also described Brock’s attention to detail and ability to manage bureaucracy:
“While I drove, Randy would keep electronically connected via his computer to what was going on in the state,” Gosselin ended. “His vehicle reminded me of my military days in a tactical operation center.”
One endorsement Brock would seem sure to reject is that of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whom Brock disavowed last year, calling him “a bully, a bigot and a buffoon.”
(It’s unclear what, if any, electoral support Brock — or Scott — will lose on Election Day because of their harsh words for Trump, who won Vermont’s primary.)
The two lieutenant governor candidates could hardly be more different, in both substance and style.
At the first lieutenant governor’s debate — held on a foggy cold morning at the Tunbridge World’s Fair — Brock wore cufflinks and a tailored suit while the ponytailed Zuckerman wore a more modest suit over long underwear.
In that debate, Brock, a Middlebury College graduate, prioritized fiscal responsibility in budgeting and said the state simply didn’t have enough money to keep investing in pie-eyed programs. He cast Zuckerman, a graduate of the University of Vermont, as a reckless legislator who had supported too many problematic tax hikes and expensive programs.
“I couldn’t find in the 14 or 16 years that you’ve been there a single tax bill that you haven’t voted in favor of,” Brock said. “We’ve got a $700 million increase in taxes over the past six years alone, and more to come. And I’ll guarantee you we are going to have a big budget deficit this next year because, again, of over-promises.”
Brock also frequently points out that the attorney general’s office spent $2 million defending the state’s GMO labeling law, which Zuckerman sponsored. The Vermont law was eventually overturned for a more lax labeling policy passed on the federal level.
When countering Brock’s allegations that he is fiscally imprudent, Zuckerman frequently points to the possibility of marijuana legalization as a way to bring in millions more in tax revenue.
Zuckerman introduced a marijuana legalization bill last legislative session that didn’t make it to the finish line. If elected lieutenant governor, he would not be in a position to introduce legislation or call witnesses to a committee hearing.
He could, however, push to put pro-pot senators on important committees like Finance and Judiciary, where any legalization legislation would be debated and drafted.
In Brock’s term as auditor, he offered prescient policy analysis that the state would experience big problems with Vermont Health Connect. If elected lieutenant governor, expect Brock to work at getting health committee members who are skeptical of the state exchange.
Brock also frequently reminds voters that lieutenant governors have had to serve as governor five times in Vermont’s history after an unexpected death.
“Why do you have a lieutenant governor?” Brock openly asked Friday. “It’s the same reason you have a vice president. There of course are constitutional duties, but the principal duty is to be there in the event of tragedy.”
Brock sees his financial management experience as an asset if he were to be governor, as well as his maturity. Brock points out that he, not Zuckerman, has overseen a large number of employees, both as state auditor and as the executive vice president for risk oversight at Fidelity Investments.
Zuckerman oversees a few workers at his Full Moon Farm but says he would be best to fill in as governor because his policy positions reflect the majority of Vermonters.
“Brock has certainly been an auditor, though the people clearly didn’t send him back to that office,” Zuckerman said Friday. “It’s not about if you’ve overseen state employees before, it’s if you have broad political and management experience and reflect the positions of Vermonters.”
While having to take over as governor appears unlikely — particularly given Scott and Minter are both athletes — history shows the predicted winner of Tuesday’s lieutenant governor’s race may have his eyes on the top job or another higher position down the road.
