Posted on 02/14/2004 4:41:33 AM PST by JimVT
Dean's influence wanes at Statehouse
By Candace Page
Free Press Staff Writer
MONTPELIER -- On Jan. 8, 2003, then-Gov. Howard Dean said good-bye to a state where -- thanks largely to his influence -- Vermonters could ride a commuter train from Charlotte to Burlington but could not play the Powerball lottery game, exit from Interstate 89 in Bolton or be dosed with methadone outside a hospital clinic.
Within two months, the commuter train screeched to a halt.
Vermonters began plunking down dollars for Powerball tickets four months after that.
The state Senate voted this month to expand methadone distribution.
And 10 days ago, members of the House Transportation Committee began talking about whether to revive plans for the Bolton exit.
"Once you're gone, you're forgotten very fast," says House Speaker Walter Freed, R-Dorset. "Somebody else is calling the shots."
Dean spent nearly 12 years as Vermont's governor, but actions at the Statehouse demonstrate every day the limited reach of the legacy he -- or any governor -- can leave.
"Every governor wants immortality. You want your name connected with something you've accomplished," said Madeleine Kunin, the Democratic governor from 1985 through 1990. "But sometimes the things you think you accomplished turn out not to last. A lot depends on your successor."
Democrat Dean's favorite programs haven't disappeared in the last year, but in many cases they are no longer top concerns for the new Republican governor or the Republican-controlled House.
Gov. Jim Douglas is fighting to expand the reach of private health insurance, not the state-subsidized health insurance Dean saw as a valuable piece of his legacy.
Permit reform and Lake Champlain cleanup have replaced land conservation -- another Dean priority -- as the headline environmental issues.
Even Dean's reputation for fiscal tight-fistedness and balanced budgets is under attack. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warn that his health insurance program will fall into a $40 million abyss of red ink in two years.
'Beyond your control'
Dean is campaigning for the presidency and could not be reached Friday. But Kunin and others said every governor's legacy runs from the truly permanent to the completely evanescent.
For a decade, Dean pushed lawmakers to spend millions on land conservation, capped by the 2000 purchase of the 133,000-acre Champion forest lands in the Northeast Kingdom. Dean can count that as part of a permanent legacy, Freed said, despite continuing disagreements over how some of the lands should be used.
Many< programs, though, have a much shorter or less effective life.
Housing and Conservation Trust Fund created during the Kunin years still is going strong. The Act 200 local planning law, enacted at about the same time, remains but has fallen far short of her vision, Kunin said.
"That part was controversial -- and Howard wasn't interested in planning," Kunin said. Dean succeeded Kunin after the governorship of her successor, Richard Snelling, was cut short by his death.
"It depends on the temper of the time, it depends on your successor -- it's just beyond your control when you leave office," she said.
Others said that much depends on a governor's ability persuade other politicians and the public to share his vision, so that a policy or program doesn't depend on his support alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at burlingtonfreepress.com ...
When the lunatic's away......
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