Howard Dean A Citizen's Guide to the Man Who Would Be President

I GOT THE CALL AT home on the morning of August 14, 1991. Gov. Richard Snelling was dead. The Rutland Herald would publish an extra edition that afternoon, and I needed to get to work. For Vermonters, the shock of Snelling's death was considerable, and it was magnified by the uncertainty we felt about his successor. The question we were asking ourselves was an obvious one, but it gained new importance in those hours of shock and grief: Who is Howard Dean? It took the next decade for those of us in the press, and our readership, to gain an understanding of the energetic, ambitious politician who was sworn into office that summer afternoon in 1991. When Snelling died, Howard Dean was in his fifth year as lieutenant governor, and we were at least superficially acquainted with him, but we had little notion about the scope of Dean's ambitions or what kind of governor he would make. Who is Howard Dean? Vermont is small enough that many Vermonters have the chance for personal encounters with their political leaders, and Howard Dean had already had a close encounter with a friend of mine. It was at a political gathering in Castleton, a small college town near the New York border, and my friend, a Congregational minister, fell unconscious from cardiac arrest. Dean, a physician, applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and kept my friend alive. That was one thing we knew about Howard Dean. He was a physician who had a practice with his wife. In fact, he was seeing a patient when he learned that Snelling had died, and it was part of the lore of that historic moment that Dean finished his appointment with his patient before heading for Montpelier to become governor. We knew also that he had come from a privileged background that included a childhood on Long Island, prep school and Yale. As a Democrat, he had risen quickly to a position of leadership in the Vermont House of Representatives, and then he ran successfully for lieutenant governor. As with most lieutenant governors, we presumed he had plans to run for governor. No one foresaw that he would claim that office so soon. Who is Howard Dean? We learned quickly that he had an off-the-cuff manner and habit of frankness that led him to say things that were insensitive or brash. Over the years, the press chided him for his insensitivity and praised him for his candor. His candor seemed to arise from a brimming self-confidence and from a doctor's habit of giving the news straight. He did not agonize or apologize, and he relished the give-and-take with the press and the public. Over time Dean's political profile began to take shape. After he was sworn in as governor, he declared his intention to stick with the economic recovery plan that Gov. Snelling, a Republican, had put in place the previous winter. Vermont state government was digging out from a deficit after the recession of the early 1990s, and Dean established from the outset a reputation for fiscal austerity. He began to focus on some favorite initiatives, such as programs for children and families and health-care reform. He promoted land conservation, which won him praise from environmentalists, and he bemoaned excessive regulation, which won him praise from business. He mounted campaigns against drunken driving and drug addiction, and he gained a reputation as tough on crime. Dean signed his name to two landmark bills during his tenure. One of them refashioned the state's system of education finance, eliminating disparities between revenues available from town to town. The other established civil unions, which gave gay and lesbian couples the same rights as married couples. Dean did not lead the way for either bill; the legislature passed the bills in response to rulings by the Vermont Supreme Court. But he supported both bills, and he did not back away from the controversies they created. Over the course of 11 years in office, Dean&amAllen, Darren is the author of 'Howard Dean A Citizen's Guide to the Man Who Would Be President', published 0016 under ISBN 9781586420758 and ISBN 1586420755.