Gov. Jim Douglas (R) Elected 2002, 1st term up Jan. 2007
Born:	June 21, 1951, Springfield, MA
Home:	Middlebury
Education:	Middlebury Col., B.A. 1972
Religion:	Congregationalist
Marital Status:	married (Dorothy)
Elected  Office:	VT House of Reps., 1972-79; Maj. Ldr., 1977-79; VT Secy. of St., 1980-92; VT Treasurer, 1994-02.
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The key decision that led to Jim Douglas being elected governor of Vermont in 2002 may have been his decision 34 years earlier to attend Middlebury College. Douglas grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, a political junkie and a strong Republican, passing out AuH2O stickers for Barry Goldwater in 1964, at 13. In 1968, he enrolled at Middlebury and almost immediately decided to live in the town that gave name to the college; his wife is from Middlebury and they have lived there ever since. Douglas's college years were a time of campus protests against the Vietnam War, but he became an active Republican and organized a rally for President Richard Nixon in Middlebury in 1970. In 1972, the year he graduated, he ran for state representative from Middlebury and was elected; he was elected majority leader in 1977. In 1979, he lost a race for Speaker and became an aide to Republican Governor Richard Snelling. In between sessions of the legislature he worked as a radio announcer and became executive director of the local United Way. In 1980, he was elected secretary of state and served for 12 years. In 1992, he ran against Senator Patrick Leahy and lost 54%-43%--the closest race Leahy has had since 1980. In 1994, after working for the Porter Medical Center in Middlebury, he spotted an opening for state treasurer and was elected to the first of four terms. The Democratic party produces many gifted political entrepreneurs who win office even in unlikely years and districts; the Republican party has one in Douglas. He has been on the Vermont ballot every two years since 1972, and for most of that time has gotten up before 6 a.m. to commute over the Green Mountains to the tiny state capital of Montpelier.

His opening to run for governor came when Democratic Governor Howard Dean announced on September 5, 2001 that he would not run again. Dean is a physician who succeeded to the governorship when Richard Snelling (the only Republican elected governor between 1970 and 2002) died suddenly in August 1991; Dean was given the news while he was treating a patient. Returned to office every two years--Vermont and New Hampshire are the last two states with two-year gubernatorial terms--he advanced a number of innovative policies which, in the minds of many observers, entitled him to serious consideration as a candidate for president in 2004. He takes liberal positions on many cultural issues (but not gun control, verboten in peaceful Vermont) but prides himself on fiscal tightness. He did not succeed in his 1992 goal of creating a universal health insurance system, but using the Medicaid program and exemptions obtained from the Clinton administration he has provided a health insurance coverage for 94% of children and 92% of adults. Prompted by a state Supreme Court ruling, Dean in 1997 got the legislature to pass Act 60, which levied a statewide property tax to provide each school district with $5,010 per student; taxes would be limited to 2% of income for those earning under $75,000. Districts wishing to raise money beyond that are required to donate a percentage of revenues to the state sharing pool, which ladles it out to other districts. Prompted again by the state Supreme Court, he got the legislature to institute civil unions for same-sex couples. A great furor rose over the issue and Dean, who was reelected with 75% of the vote in 1992, 69% in 1994 and 71% in 1996, won by lesser margins of 56%-41% and 50%-38% in 1998 and 2000.

But by 2001, there was starting to be discontent over what had seemed to be settled Vermont consensus. Not on civil unions--seemingly widely, if in some cases grudgingly, accepted--but over the high property taxes engendered by Act 60, the long delays in development caused by the environmental reviews under 30-year-old Act 250 and, most of all, by frequent news of job loss and a rising sense that Vermont has a reputation for being unfriendly to business. Douglas and his Democratic opponent, Lieutenant Governor Douglas Racine, agreed that Act 60 and Act 250 needed some changes; so did Con Hogan, former director of state human services, who started running for the Republican nomination but decided in February to run as an Independent. But there was a clear difference in emphasis. Douglas called for tax cuts, if spending cuts could be achieved, and promised to "create a more business-friendly environment." He advocated major modification in Act 60 and ending the sharing pool. He charged that despite its high spending on education,Vermont was still getting mediocre test scores. He called for a Megan's Law requiring registration of addresses of convicted drug dealers. It was "time for a change," he said, in a state which had had Democratic governors 17 of the last 18 years. "With each new announcement of job losses, officials in Montpelier act surprised and helpless. It's time to stop making excuses and start making a difference."

Racine had a political career as long as Douglas's. He, too, was a teenage political junkie, watching the 1964 conventions on television; but he was rooting for the Democrats. At home, he worked in his father's service station and Jeep dealership in Burlington; at Princeton, he wrote a senior thesis on the rise of the Democratic party in Vermont. In 1974 he worked on the Senate campaign of the young Burlington prosecutor, Patrick Leahy. When Leahy won and became Vermont's first Democratic senator ever, he asked Racine to work on his staff in Washington and then Montpelier. Racine ran for the state Senate and lost in 1980, then won five terms; he lost the race for lieutenant governor in 1994 but won in 1996, 1998 and 2000. In the 2002 campaign, Racine said that as lieutenant governor he had helped fashion consensus on school funding, children's services and the budget. He called for conservation, environmental protection and broad access to health care. He conceded the need for simplifying Act 60 and speeding up Act 250.

There were more than three dozen debates between the candidates, and Racine led in most public polls. The turning point evidently came in the last week. Douglas ran a tough ad accusing Racine of flip-flopping on issues--switching to support the Circumferential Highway sought by IBM in the Burlington area, allowing local school districts to raise local taxes with lesser penalties in the form of the sharing pool. The implication was that Racine did not really stand for change and that Douglas did. Racine may have been hurt as well by a leaflet his campaign mailed out charging Douglas with cutting programs for women and featuring a large hatchet; at least some people objected.

The result was something of an upset. Douglas led Racine 45%-42%, with 10% for Hogan. Under Vermont law, if no candidate receives 50% of the vote, the governor is chosen by a combined vote of the two houses of the legislature. Republicans entered the campaign with a large majority of legislative seats; Racine announced that he would not take his candidacy to the legislature if he won under 50%, while Douglas said he would. Then, contrary to most expectations, Democrats made gains in the legislature and their majority in the Senate was larger than the Republicans' narrow margin in the House. But Racine kept his word and Douglas became governor.

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Office
109 State St., Montpelier 05609, 802-828-3333; Fax: 802-828-3339; Web: www.gov.state.vt.us.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2002 general	Jim Douglas (R)	103,436	45%
	Doug Racine (D)	97,565	42%
	Cornelius Hogan (I)	22,353	10%
	Other	6,807	3%
2002 primary	Jim Douglas (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Howard Dean (D)	148,059	50%
	Ruth Dwyer (R)	111,359	38%
	Anthony Pollina (PRG)	28,116	10%
	Other	5,939	2%