Vermont Governor: It’s Time to Go

MONTPELIER, Vt. —  Democratic Gov. Howard Dean, who survived a tough reelection campaign last fall after ushering in Vermont’s pioneering law allowing gay couples to form civil unions, said Wednesday he will not run again next year.

Dean, 52, said he simply decided that after 10 years in office, it was time to go.

“The baton has to be passed sometime,” he said. “I have accomplished many things that I wanted to accomplish in this job. What we have done is extraordinary.”

Political analysts have speculated Dean might run for president in 2004 or seek a Senate seat in 2006. But the governor said Wednesday that he just doesn’t know. “I need to think through what I am going to do.”

Dean, a physician, was lieutenant governor in 1991 when Gov. Richard Snelling, a Republican, died in office. Dean was elected governor in his own right in 1992 and easily won reelection in 1994, 1996 and 1998.

Last year, though, his popularity plummeted when the state Legislature, prompted by a state Supreme Court ruling, passed a first-in-the-nation law granting gay couples most of the rights and benefits of marriage. Dean defended the civil union law, which divided Vermonters, as the right thing to do.

In a three-way race, he barely won the required 50% of the vote.

He said Wednesday he believes he could win reelection next year but decided he had served long enough.

All of the potential candidates for governor in 2002 have said they support the civil union law, a sign that the firestorm has eased.

Two Republicans, state Treasurer Jim Douglas and former state Human Services Secretary Cornelius Hogan, are already campaigning for the governor’s office. Democrats Lt. Gov. Douglas Racine and state Sen. Peter Shumlin indicated they would run if Dean did not. A Progressive, Anthony Pollina, who ran last year, is also expected to seek the office again.

Rep. Bernard Sanders, an independent who has held Vermont’s lone seat in Congress for a decade, said he too will consider a run for governor.

Dean became governor during one of the worst recessions in the state. He was forced to cut spending but later presided over the state’s longest economic expansion. He also championed child health care.

Dean said he believes his greatest accomplishments have been in helping children. “Virtually every child in Vermont has health insurance. The real message about children is that children have become a priority.”