The Dubie 2000

As many in the Vermont state media and others tear at their garments and cry; ‘the tone, oh, the tone of this campaign for governor’ lets look back to when Vermont gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie first developed his campaign habits in a statewide race. Maybe his Virginia and Texas media gang are just simply building and expanding on what has been there from the first. What was pure Dubie style from the start?

Dubie stood by both the commercial and his website.
Yesterday? Nope this is from an incident in October 2000 when Brian Dubie was campaigning in a statewide race.
He was in his first race for lieutenant governor and fellow Republican Ruth Dwyer was running for governor in a rough race against Howard Dean. It was Take Back Vermont at its peak and Dubie ultimately lost but what lessons did he take away.
Two years before in 1998 Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Vt. Senator Patrick Leahy had written Dubie gracious letters of recommendation when he applied for a Harvard Fellows program.
Later, in 2000 he decided they could be made useful for something other than what they had been intended for, his political campaign. He repurposed the letters of recommendation and with a small print disclaimer included them in his campaign literature, TV ads and webpage. Dubie denied he was using the letters for political gain and claimed he only wanted them to show voters that he was a “proven leader”.
Dean and Leahy who both supported his Democratic opponent requested their two year old letters of recommendation for the fellows program be removed from his campaign.

"While the commercial includes a small and brief disclaimer, Vermonters could very well be left with the impression that we support his candidacy, which we do not," Dean and Leahy said.*

Tens years ago in 2000 when confronted with a legitimate request Dubie refused to remove questionable material from his ads. Inadvertently showing more about his future behavior than he may have known Brian Dubie said in part at the time

“We're talking about the character of someone that the people of the state of Vermont don't know. I'm trying to show what kind of person Brian Dubie is."

Stubbornly he stood by the letter’s repurposing and refused to honor the author’s request for their removal as long as he felt they served his needs. He was trying to show what kind of person Brian Dubie is.

*follow link to cross-posted diary with link to PDF news article source