Editor’s note: VTDigger will be profiling the major candidates for statewide offices over the coming weeks. Tomorrow will feature a profile of Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman.
Even Rep. Don Turner Jr.’s kid wondered why he always voted no.
As an eighth-grade legislative page, Turner’s youngest daughter, Erin, commuted with her dad the hour each way between home and Montpelier. In more than 11 years at the Statehouse, Turner has never stayed overnight in Montpelier, primarily because until earlier this year, he served as Milton fire chief too, and is always on call.
“She’d say ‘Dad, why do you always vote no on everything? The other pages say your dad always votes no,’” Turner said.
Then two years ago, Erin, now at the University of Vermont, interned for him at the Statehouse.
“She said ‘Dad, I really understand the whole dynamic of why you voted no and what you stood for,’” Turner said. “That’s cool when your kid can put it together.”
Turner said his voting record is a long list of nos because he’s a Republican in a chamber dominated by Democrats. During his time in Montpelier, which began in 2006, the number of Republicans has flirted with 50 — sometimes just below, sometimes above — the minimum they need to sustain a veto by a Republican governor.
“Being in the minority, you’re continually playing defense,” he said.
Today, there are 53 Republicans, enough to protect a veto by Gov. Phil Scott, who has issued nine in his first two years in office. None have been overturned by both chambers. The House came close this year, when Democrats fell four votes short of overriding a veto on a toxic chemicals bill. (The Senate had already overridden the veto.)
Legislative observers say Turner has done a solid job holding the House Republican caucus together. He says he’s not applied a heavy hand.
“It was not me holding them together. It was them doing what they thought was right. I really do believe that. I told them over and over you represent your constituents first, then you have to sleep and here’s what we (Republicans) have set for goals,” Turner said.
Turner, an affable extrovert who goes by the nickname “Duck” or “Ducky” just like his father, gave himself this assessment as minority leader, which he took over in 2011.
“I don’t know if I was successful. I’m proud of my work as a leader. I’m proud of the team that we had. We just didn’t have enough Republicans and that was frustrating,” Turner said.
Turner’s voting record backs up his fiscal conservative badge — he has voted no on the state budget repeatedly and opposed increasing the minimum wage and paid family leave — but his claim to be a “social moderate” appears less strong.
For example, Turner has opposed legalizing marijuana and voted against several gun law changes, both supported by Scott. Turner also scores low on the Vermont Environmental Scoreboard and Vermont Public Interest Research Group ranking of legislators.
Notably, Turner voted against marriage equality in 2009. However, he said if it came up today, he would vote in favor — a major reversal.
“The world has changed. Acceptance has changed. Things have changed,” Turner explained during an interview last week in his sparse campaign office in a Milton mini-mall, munching a plain salad with chicken in between questions. He was on his lunch break from his job as Milton town manager, which he took over last year.
The following day Turner called a reporter to reiterate his same-sex marriage change-of-heart and insist he was not undergoing an election-time conversion. Turner is running against David Zuckerman, a longtime Progressive finishing his first term. (Zuckerman runs as a Democrat as well.)
“I would vote different today. I don’t want to be a flip-flop politician, but it’s a different time,” he said. As a justice of the peace, Turner said he had officiated gay marriages and performed civil unions, at least three in all.
“They were people I knew. They wanted me to do it. I was honored to do it,” he said. He acknowledged that some, particularly conservative Republicans, would be unhappy with his new stance.
“It’s just how I feel,” Turner said. He marched in the Vermont Pride Parade and Festival in Burlington last month along with a campaign car float.
He points to a sexual harassment bill he co-sponsored as an example of working across party lines.
Turner insists his recent support for a tax-and-regulate system to sell marijuana was also sincere and not politically motivated. His amendment in January to set up a full-blown system raised eyebrows. House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, called Turner’s effort a “poison pill” to derail a bill to legalize possession of small amounts of pot, a bill that was well on its way to passing. Later in April, Turner joined Zuckerman in an effort to set up a retail system, but backed out.
Turner explained his support for a full-blown system this way: once it was clear Scott would sign the bill, Turner said, it made sense to “get ahead of this” and set up a system that would raise funds to pay for public safety, health and education programs and provide quality control.
“I would prefer for it to be illegal, but if it’s going to be legal, then we’ve got to do it right and at least protect Vermonters with some sort of revenue stream to cover these expenses that are happening,” he said. “I know there are people still mad at me, there’s some of the base I get bombarded on, but I still think I did what was right.”
Turner said some conservatives are also unhappy he dumped his support for candidate Donald Trump after the October 2016 release of the crude remarks on the “Access Hollywood” tapes. Turner has three daughters. The comments, he said, were not “even remotely defensible.” Turner initially condemned Trump, but did not sever his support. Four hours later, he pulled the plug. Turner said he didn’t vote for anyone for president in 2016. He wouldn’t completely rule out supporting Trump in 2020.
Turner said he can’t gauge whether dissatisfaction with Trump will hurt him.
Vermont political observers and Turner see the race as an uphill battle.
Turner’s path to victory depends on tamping down his conservative credentials and presenting himself as a “palatable alternative” to Zuckerman. The campaign also hopes to ride the coattails of Scott and, more importantly, rely on Zuckerman not receiving too big a bump from popular independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running for re-election. The theory is if Turner can hold his own in Chittenden County by focusing on Milton and the more conservative suburbs, essentially conceding Burlington, that he can beat Zuckerman by winning big in the more rural parts of the state.
Johnson, who’s running against two of Turner’s cousins in her House race, thinks Zuckerman will win.
“David has a lot of name recognition because he’s been on the ball. Don is really well known in Milton. There’s a big difference,” Johnson said.
Turner and his campaign feared not being able to raise enough money, but so far he has brought in $225,000, outpacing Zuckerman, who’s raised a little more than $142,000. The National Realtors Association also spent $54,000 in online ads on Turner’s behalf.
Turner’s campaign message is simple. Vermont is unaffordable — taxes are too high, spending is too high — a message Turner will repeat on the stump over and over.
“Do you want big dreams and big taxes or do you want someone who has been fiscally conservative and has a record of that?” Turner asks, summing up what he sees as the key difference.
“Bernie’s going to come in and try to drag Zuckerman on his coattails. I think the governor’s helping Don,” said Richard Wobby, who is advising Turner. “Don has a strong alignment with conservatives but he’s also been able to shift his thought process to a more independent way of thinking that doesn’t always settle well with the GOP faithful, but I think people in Vermont are more supportive of the candidate than the party.”
Wobby ran Scott’s 2016 campaign and said he shifted to Turner because Scott had enough people on board and the lieutenant governor’s race was one of the few statewide races viewed as winnable for the Republicans. Wobby claimed internal polls showed the race “nip and tuck.” (A VPR-VPT poll Monday put Zuckerman ahead by double digits.)
People are dissatisfied with the status quo, spending is too high and Turner would provide some balance in the Legislature, Wobby said.
As a candidate, Turner began as a “raw baby” and is now more seasoned. For example, Wobby said the affable Turner, who is prone to long-winded answers, talked to three people at his first farmers market; at the last one, he talked to nearly 50, Wobby said.
“His heart’s in the right place. His technique was a little rough in meeting people,” Wobby said. “He’s smoothed it out immensely.”
House Speaker Johnson, a Democrat, said she and Turner have communicated well for the most part. Sometimes, she said felt with Turner that “there was a mismatch where some of the actions don’t always line up with the stated value.” On one bill this year, she said Turner appeared to be trying to encourage Republicans to leave the floor to thwart the quorum. Turner maintains that members left because of the late hour but admitted “we were counting” to see if the numbers present would fall below the quorum level. Johnson also said Turner arbitrarily offered to approve suspending the rules for 10 bills at the end of the session, which she negotiated upward.
Former Speaker Shap Smith, a Democrat, outlined the challenges he had with Turner but also offered qualified respect.
“Don was very aggressive about pushing forward his opposition to bills, and we engaged in many robust discussions about both process and policy,” Smith said. “We had a lot of go-rounds about health care and the budget.
“We got in each other’s faces a number of times,” Smith said.
“He used the rules the way he thought they would benefit his cause most effectively. I didn’t always like it but that’s what the rules are for. Look, he played the cards that he had and we would on occasion have some challenging moments, but he was representing his caucus as effectively as he could,” said Smith, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2016, losing the Democratic primary to Zuckerman.
Johnson said being the caucus leader is a difficult job, “trying to please a lot of people. But I feel like he could have done a better job to educate and engaging members and working on solving problems instead of representing complaints.”
“Leadership is about expanding people’s capacity and problem solving,” Johnson said.
Turner downplayed any differences he had with the Democratic speakers. He disputed some lawmakers’ views that he didn’t always keep his promises and said he was “a man of his word.” Several mentioned Turner having a temper, but noted the difficulty of his job.
“People do get emotional in the Statehouse. I have sometimes, but not very often. I know it’s not life and death. I know what that is,” he said.
Turner sat in seat 110, the first desk on the right when you enter the chamber, back row on the aisle, the place he thought best to keep an eye on the speaker.
Turner said his favorite time during the session was when he bought pizzas for the pages after their sessions were done every six weeks.
Wobby points to Turner’s stamina as his strength on the campaign trail. Turner said repeatedly “we won’t be outworked.”
Former Rep. Patti Komline of Dorset, Turner’s predecessor as minority leader, said he was “hardworking, responsive and diligent.”
Turner, 54, knows about hard work. At one point, he held six jobs simultaneously: realtor (his office is right next door to the campaign headquarters), development partner with his father, state legislator, Milton town manager, fire and rescue chief, and fire warden. (As a developer, he conceded he failed to renew on time a state construction stormwater permit on a housing project. In one of his projects, he lost a boundary dispute in 2011, a case that went to the Vermont Supreme Court.)
He stepped down in January as fire and rescue chief after being appointed permanent town manager at an annual salary of $105,000. Johnson, whose district covers part of Milton, said she heard questions from taxpayers wondering if they were well served with Turner holding so many positions. Turner said he juggled the jobs successfully by hiring more people, delegating, and working weekends and Mondays when the Legislature does not meet.
Firefighting — and serving as chief of the department — has been by far his favorite vocation. He dreamed of hook and ladders as a boy and joined the Milton squad at age 17. He speaks passionately about helping people at a critical time. The Rescue Squad was merged into the Fire Department, but Turner said he’s not a “blood, guts and vomit kind of guy” but did the training.
Kim Mercer said she remembered Turner at the scene at 2 a.m. when her parents’ home burned down in April 2017. The elderly couple escaped and recently rebuilt their home.
“We only had a brief conversation, but it was comforting knowing he was there,” Mercer told VTDigger. Her husband and Turner, who grew up in Milton, graduated from Milton High School a year apart. Turner also graduated from Champlain College.
Turner said he grew to love people during his 12 years as manager of a bowling alley in Milton. He laughs at a recent news story that described him as looking like a TV sitcom ad. His wife, Gail, is a legal secretary and thinks he doesn’t smile enough and appears angry on television, he said.
“I am who I am,” Turner said, smiled, and then shrugged his shoulders.
