Matt Dunn Running
For Lieutenant Governor

State Sen. Matt Dunne comes from a family dedicated to prolitical principle and brings experience in Washington to his run for lieutenant governor.

By M. D. Drysdale

n important thing to know about Matt Dunne, the 36-year-old Windsor County Senator who is running for lieutenant governor, is that his father died of a melanoma at age 39, when Matt was 12.

Another important thing to know is that Matt suspects the melanoma began during the four months his father was on a prison chain gang in North Carolina.

Dunne—a full generation younger than most all the other politicians on the statewide ballot this year—is waging a youth-centered, service-oriented campaign of idealism and activism across the state as he tries to unseat Brian Dubie, the Republican lieutenant governor. His politics in this election are clearly the politics that he grew up with.

His father, John Dunne, left college to become a civil rights activist in the Chapel Hill desegregation battle and ended up sentenced to jail for two years. He served just four months—but it was at hard labor. John Dunne later worked for Republican New York Mayor John Lindsay, a liberal, idealistic politician, and helped Vermont Gov. Phil Hoff set up the Vermont-New York project that brought inner-city youngsters to Vermont.

Before his life ended too soon, John Dunne became a Norwich lawyer and helped set up both the Upper Valley Land Trust and Upper Valley Services.

Meanwhile, Dunne's mother also broke new ground when she became the chair of the Education Department at Dartmouth, having been hired when the college first accepted women students.

Got Going Early

With this background, Matt Dunne graduated from Brown University in 1992. He recalls hearing President Clinton tell young people to "get out there and do something," and he responded by running for the Vermont House of Representatives at age 22 as a Democrat in a likely Republican district. He won, and spent seven years in the House of Representatives.

In private life at the same time he helped start a software company, Logic Associates, which he said grew to $18 million in sales before he sold it.

Alone among this year's crop of candidates, Dunne has significant experience in Washington politics and bureaucracy. During the Clinton administration, he was snatched from the Vermont legislature and appointed head of AmeriCorps/Vista, spending two and a half years in Washington. He left after the transition to the Bush administration with his own idealism unchecked—but with a major grudge against the new administration for not rallying Americans to service after 9/11.

After that attack, he recalled, "Bush made a call to service in his State of the Union address.

"The moment was right," he said, "because after 9/11 AmeriCorps had experienced an overwhelming call to service." It seemed like a good time to expand the agency. A year later, however, Dunne said that the president proposed "big cuts" in the AmeriCorps budget, making clear that he didn't support that route to service.

"To give so much hope to a generation … and then break your word," Dunne reflected, "It was unconscionable."

Into the Senate

When he came home to Vermont, it was again to run for office, this time the state senate, where a seat had opened up. He won handily and for the last four years has been part of an unusually powerful three-man Democratic delegation in Windsor County, which also included Majority Leader John Campbell of Woodstock and Senate President Peter Welch of Hartland.

In his run for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, Dunne faced significant opposition from Rep. Tracy of Burlington, a respected operator in the House of Representatives who played a key role in shepherding the "Catamount Health" bill through the legislature.

Despite the fact that Tracy has a longer political resume, is well-respected in the House, and comes from populous Chittenden County, Dunne won his primary with an ease that must have made Lt. Gov. Dubie take uneasy notice. (In Dubie's favor, though, is the fact that a Progressive is also in the lieutenant governor's race, and may take votes from Dunne.)

In his campaign, Dunne has gone back to his idealistic roots and has set up service opportunities for his followers everywhere he goes. In person, he's energetic, fixing the listener with a personable but intense gaze, a mixture of good looks and personal magnetism.

'At a Crossroads'

In his Herald interview, he expounded a vision that some might take to be over-dramatic but which seems to fit his political personality: "Vermont is at a crossroads," he warned.

On one hand, he said, the state could become "a park for retired people." On the other hand, he said, he sees "a place energized by entrepreneurs who can function in the global market."

"I'm not sure there's room in between those two alternatives," he declared.

He touted his work on economic development legislation in the Senate last year, helping to create a program of direct investment for "the right risk-taking firms"

He said he's been "disappointed" that Gov. Douglas has not followed through quickly enough to develop broadband internet access everywhere in Vermont. A program he developed is helping to bring broadband to Strafford and Tunbridge, he pointed out. Early in the campaign, Dunne was careful not to launch much in the way of frontal criticisms of Dubie, who has been a popular and well-traveled incumbent. He does say, however that he has "ideological issues" with him, and says he should do a better job in "standing up to Washington" on such issues as Medicare and the decay of civil liberties.

Recently, Dunne has been criticial of Dubie for being a part-time lieutenant governor. This has been the usual practice, but Dunne said that with a $61,000 salary it ought to be a full-time job and that Dubie, who is an airplane pilot, ought to get back on the ground and tend to business.

He himself, he said grandly, wants "to get up every day and work for Vermonters."

Dunne also told The Herald that he wants to transform the lieutenant governor's office, to make it a much more powerful office with a bigger impact on policy. Told that this same proposal is made by every new candidate for the office, he seemed a trifle surprised.

Still, both his energy on the campaign trail and during his career so far suggest that he would indeed be an activist lieutenant governor, within the stringent limits of that job. If he were to win the office, he said, he would continue his "history of growing organizations and bringing them together.

"I want to get people excited about a passion for community service."

One imagines he's still remembering his father on that chain gang.