Knock, knock open-up

Aggressive tactics for the Final Approach. On Saturday Team Dubie headed out to areas of the state they are likely to win. While rallying the base it seems they have cast aside any subtle efforts at persuading un-decided voters and are now going for the hard sell. Dubie’s green shirts are vowing to visit 100,000 homes with a mildly aggressive final message. Dubie said,

“We have a simple message. ‘Knock, Knock. Are you for Brian Dubie?’”

Activity during the final week of October’s campaign has seen a libel suit filed against Dubie for Governor among other RGA campaign related legal battles that have heated things up even further. Dubie has received a raft of criticism from friends and foes about the damage nasty campaign tactics have had on his “nice guy” reputation. In rebuttal his staunch ally Barre Mayor Tom Lauzon had some supportive comments yesterday. Appearing at a rally on a cold and rainy day clad only in a jacket, he was asked if he was cold. The Barre mayor claimed to be warm and toasty

“…I’m basking in the glow of the Brian Dubie campaign,”

Is there a light under that bushel after all?
Continuing his glowing praise and maybe in a muddled attempt to address questions about the Lt governor’s character as presented by his campaign tactics Lauzon made this claim:

“Character is defined by what you do when the camera isn’t on you.”

Kind of an odd observation from the mayor that once, during a meeting (off camera) threw a city councilman’s cellphone across a room hard enough to shatter it. So we will have to take his word for this one, it’s a judgment call based on character.

Dubie “busting his ride” for governor?

Vermont Republican Brian Dubie’s no holds barred what ever it takes gubernatorial campaign has drawn plenty of criticism and hand wringing. According to reports Republican office holders in Vermont have urged him privately to cool it, claiming he is doing more harm than good.

While wondering about his character I searched back and found an AOPA magazine puff piece about Dubie from early in 2010 at the start of his campaign. Naturally AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots) magazine highlighted his being a pilot .They mention (Vermonters have heard this ad nauseum) that Dubie sees a direct parallel between the qualities of being a pilot and the skills needed to be a politician and assuming leadership role in government.

Here from the AOPA piece is one incident Dubie strangely brought, up an example from pilot training of parallel lines that may exist between the qualities of a pilot and useful leadership skills.If a student pilot “busts three rides ,he is washed out Some might see parallels between his story, his campaign and his remaining reputation.It’s actually surprising he brought this up at all, but he must be quite proud of his accomplishment.

One way to bust a ride was to get airsick.

Dubie climbed into a T-37 for his first military training flight on a hot summer day. After flying the pattern for a while with his instructor, he began to feel the effects of the heat. On the last pattern, the instructor turned to him and asked him how he felt. Increasingly queasy, he set the switch to “cold mic.”

“At that moment, I blew chow,” Dubie said, telling the story in his Montpelier office. “I filled my cheek.” But he didn’t acknowledge to the instructor that he was sick.
“I swallowed hard and said, ‘I’m feeling great.’ … I didn’t bust that ride. I didn’t bust any ride,” he said.

Vermont’s Lark Bunting, Dick Mazza

In a five year study of the Lark Bunting, scientists found the birds seemed to select companions for varying traits from year to year. One year they found selections were based on beak size, and the next year this choice was based on plumage. Following years it was smaller body size and the next year the trend might be reversed. Researchers also think this behavior might be found in other species.

Dick Mazza a middle of the road Vermont state senator from Colchester is displaying some of the distinctive traits of the female Lark Bunting, but all in one election year! In September, he let it be known he didn’t expect to weigh in for one Vermont gubernatorial candidate or the other.
Eventually, but with no commitment made, he took to displaying a little Democratic Shumlin plumage on his lawn in the form of a yard sign.

Now the Burlington Free Press observes his behavior takes another turn after a courting visit to Mazza’s General Store:

Mazza agrees to let [Republican Brian]Dubie plant his own sign in the yard. While Dubie is outside doing that, back inside the store Mazza says he’ll be supporting Shumlin.

The following field observation might have been made from afar with binoculars.

Dubie heads to the back of the store, where Mazza is in his office. After they chat about the need to extend the Amtrak rail line from St. Albans to Montreal, Mazza gets firm with Dubie about the tone of the governor’s race.

Back in the minivan, asked what he thinks of Mazza’s support for Shumlin, Dubie says, “I’m glad he said I could put a sign out.”

Brian Dubie and the company sandbox

"We call it a creative sandbox for the company,"said Brian Dubie.
Sandboxes get all kinds of uses, just ask the neighborhood cats.

So let’s take a look at a corporation Brian Dubie has invited into what he calls his “creative sandbox” (Vermont): TerreStar, not exactly a shining example of a stable, ethical corporation, but one example of the out-of-state businesses Dubie chooses to import to Vermont.

In August of this year, short of funds and verging on bankruptcy, TerreStar Corp engaged a financial restructuring firm. Not many Vermonters will have heard of TerreStar Corp (integrated satellite and terrestrial telecommunications systems) of Reston VA. However it was promoted and actively boosted by Brian Dubie as a savior for the Northeast Kingdom (NEK) cellular communication problems. He learned of TerreStar and helped the company extensively in his roles as Lt. Governor, chairman of the Aerospace States Association, and as head of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce sponsored Vermont Aerospace Association (VAA).

After Dubie aided the NASDAQ traded company in accessing transmission frequency rights they agreed to pilot its groundbreaking service in Vermont. Specifically how access to these rights was accomplished isn’t clear.
It didn’t go unnoticed by TerresStar’s chairman who said

Vermont officials are so enthused about the satellite plan that they're drumming up interest among other state governments, which face their own sets of issues around getting broadband access to some of their citizens and workforces.

In the Fall of 2007 (shortly before being turned down for a position in the FAA) Dubie, in his capacity as chair of the ASA, flew to California to tour Loral space systems facilities. He met with executives to discuss easing homeland security related export control issues. The connection between these export controls (meant to keep terrorists from getting hold of weapons technologies) and the satellite were not mentioned or explained. This was all in preparation for a March 2008 mock Capitol Hill hearing dealing with issue.

As part of the visit he viewed the TerreStar satellite under construction. His travel on behalf of the ASA is normally paid by Vermont as part of his Lt.Gov. duties. Dubie’s chief of staff described this as a thank-you tour of sorts for the successful development of TerresStar’s satellite. TerresStar’s president later singled out Dubie specifically for those efforts as ASA chair.
Frequent flyer miles or just thanks?

In 2009 TerreStar paid for Dubie’s flight to Karou, French Guiana

, to view the launch of the Arianne rocket carrying the satellite. The Times Argus wrote it up, but no reporter asked who paid for Dubie’s flight.

Troubles at TerreStar
Bankruptcy or similar problems may have been in the cards (or stars?) for TerreStar Corp from the start. Its executives, and its former parent corporation Motient, have a lengthy history of questionable business practices.
In 2005, an institutional shareholder lawsuit described TerresStar’s corporate culture this way:

"Unfortunately, what TerreStar fails to acknowledge in its self-description is how its tattered past of mismanagement and poor execution, alleged Board self-dealings and conflicts of interest, and governance failures resulted in a stock price that has fallen steadily since February of 2005."

Two company officials the brother of the acting chairman and the former chairman of the board (and here) are known to be under investigation or have been convicted of multiple counts of fraud, racketeering, money laundering and other crimes.
The shareholder lawsuit continues:

the operation was run by “a group of hand-picked insiders, which includes other sitting directors, executive management and affiliated consultants and industry service providers,”

What did Dubie know?
It isn’t known whether Dubie knew this history when he was flown in to Kourou, French Guiana to watch the rocket launch. He mentioned a technological risk and weighed engineering questions raised by analysts against $1 billion worth of investments from what he referred to as

"people who think this thing is going to work."

Does he think investor’s money can overcome any problems? Dubie said

"This is hopefully going to result in people up in Newport having cell capability."

But contrary to that glowing prediction, the only immediate benefit of the 15 year life span satellite would be some first responders - if the system works at all - and only after that might others in the NEK see any potential improvement in cell service. In addition TerreStar won’t market cell and broadband service directly to consumers; instead it will sell the technology to other providers.

Given the history of those involved with TerreStar, the first question he could have asked was: what are the chances of success? Sadly, we may be on the verge of learning the answer: in 2010 TerreStar is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.Who may have benefited from Dubie's dual role boosterism as Vermont’s Lt.Gov. and VAA head for the Chamber of Commerce? How much time was taken from his Vermont Lt. Governor duties by literally being flown around the nation and the world lending assistance to promote a test project for this rogues’ gallery of corporate executives running a soon to be bankrupt corporation? What kinds of question would an effective leader have asked from the start?
Dubie’s question:

"I asked them, 'what's in this for you?'" said Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie.
"They said, 'we are going to launch a billion-dollar satellite, and when we turn this thing on, we're going to need a place to use it.'"

TerresStar’s “promise”:

"The value proposition is to eventually use a wholesale model, where we can leverage the assets to allow existing customers to sell new features (in the future),"chief marketing officer Doug Sobieski

GMD was unable to reach Mr. Soboieski to ask him whether the executives of TerreStar Corp considered Vermont's Republican Lt. Governor to be a "leveraged asset" or a "new feature." Perhaps that is question for Vermont voters.

Also posted on Green Mountain Daily

His nibs: young Jason Gibbs

Jason Gibbs is allegedly running for Vermont Secretary of State but when the bulk of his ideas in a recent press release involve correcting what he sees as problems with the legislative openness it makes for a transparent swipe at his opponent.
To read his proposals for transparency as Secretary of State one would be forgiven for getting the impression that office dictates only rules for the legislature.

Maybe an old habit of hitting the legislature just dies hard for the protégé and former executive branch communication spokes-flack for Governor Douglas. Gibbs, an administration insider is perhaps as much or even more the heir apparent to Douglas than gubernatorial candidate Dubie.He may already think he is running for governor and in some sense he may be.



Also mentioned in the press statement is one old favorite principle of innovation, to reduce(government) reliance on taxpayers .

“…the best way to achieve these results is to make government more efficient, more productive, and a more valuable partner in the creation of economic activity.”

But no matter how many out of the box ideas explored it still costs money to run the Secretary of States’ office.
He often highlights his brief time at Vermont Forests and Parks where he had the ability to lease and sell State Forest resources to mitigate costs. What resources are available to be leased or sold by the Secretary of State?
The federal Mineral Management Service that oversees and inspects oil rigs relied on royalties and fees from the industry it regulated and was a valuable partner in creation of economic activity. We see how well that worked.

Worthy of note also are six really gee-wiz-outside-the-box ideas that must have originated in the mind of the guy that was so overzealous at promoting Vermont State Parks he got kicked off Facebook for abusing the email list rules.

Gibbs said the Secretary of State can also explore opportunities that will enhance civic participation by:
• Publishing voting information and dates on all tax bills and correspondence sent to Vermonters.
• Partnering* with cell phone carriers to send text messages to Vermont cell phone subscribers**.
• Utilizing the Vermont Lottery to scroll voting messages at retail locations as well as print the voting dates on lottery tickets.
• Printing voting information on hunting and fishing licenses.
• Asking regulated utilities to include voting information on billing inserts.
• Deploying the Agency of Transportation solar-powered “variable message boards” along roadways to display voting information leading up to elections.

*Partnering? paying a fee to them?
**Given the cell phone coverage here in Vermont under Douglas’ years old e-state initiative the second idea might reach a half dozen people.

Dubie dines with men who stare at dictators

Redistricting looms in 2012 and the Republicans are going full tilt to elect as many governors as possible.
Newscorp's Rupert Murdoch just gave one of the biggest single contributions ever to the Republican Governor’s Association.

Thursday the RGA released its first TV ad supporting Vermont Lt. Governor candidate Brian Dubie narrated by none other than our current Governor Jim Douglas (do you suppose words come out of Dubie’s mouth?). This strategy of outside advertising dollar support may be what lead to Brian Dubie’s dinner date with some heavy hitters two weeks ago. Or maybe it was purely a social event. Regardless candidate Dubie is running with fast crowd these days.

Brian Dubie was one of 15-20 dinner guests with at Topridge a 207 acre Adirondack “camp”. The historic camp features buildings inspired by Russian architecture complete onion domes. The host at Topridge was Harlan Crow a wealthy, actually very wealthy and by Vermont standard very conservative Dallas Texas business man.

Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, the only Republican running to replace Gov. James Douglas, was a guest at a dinner for a very select group of visitors to upstate New York about two weeks ago.
Among the 15 or 20 people at the dinner were former President George Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow. Times-Argus

The Dallas real estate magnate Crow is also a trustee of the George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library and of the American Enterprise Institute and a founding member of Grover Norquist’s Club for Growth. He also is reported to have provided funding for the Swiftboat Veteran’s for Truth.

In addition to funding conservative politics Dubie’s dinner host Harlan Crow has another interesting pastime,collecting statues of dictators and fallen despots.

Nearly 20 statues of leaders and heroes of authoritarian regimes occupy the rolling private garden of Harlan R. Crow, a Dallas real estate investor. Heavyweights like Stalin, Mao and Lenin stand among lesser-knowns like Klement Gottwald, the first Communist president of Czechoslovakia.

Dubie’s PAC men

Green Mountain Prosperity a recent political action committee formed as an offshoot of Haley Barbour’s Republican Governor’s Association is funneling big money to Vermont gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie.
It is reported Green Mount Prosperity raised nearly $160, 00 of $100.00 or more with some of the money having been originally donated to the RGA.

Some who made checks out to the RGA have complained that they never intended to give money to GMP for a Vermont election race. How checks initially made out to the national RGA and funneled to the new PAC Green Mountain Prosperity should be listed remains unresolved according to reports.

Nowhere on its July 15 campaign finance filing with the secretary of state’s office does the PAC note that it is an offshoot of the RGA or that its purpose is to help Dubie. The office does have on a file a spreadsheet showing a registration of a "bank designation" in February of "Green Mountain Prosperity PAC (fka[sic] Republican Governors Association - Vermont PAC)."
Dubie’s campaign denied any knowledge of Green Mountain Prosperity PAC, but welcomed the help.

Here in Vermont in 2004 the RGA was the subject of a superior court injunction forcing it to halt running campaign ads after their funding was thought to have violated the law by failing to register as a PAC and properly report its advertising expenditures.
Its worth noting that Dennise Casey Vermont Governor Jim Douglas’s longtime campaign staffer and Deputy Chief of Staff who left in 2009 now works at the RGA. In the past Virginia gubernatorial race, which may be a model for the Dubie campaign the RGA funded a last minute attack ad campaign against Bob McDonnell’s opponent.

Dubie Scheduled to Ride the Tiger

The promo for the Vermont Tiger event called Crunch Time notes that:

“He [Dubie] has long been interested in new ideas and innovative policies to promote economic growth in Vermont and was a panelist at last year's ‘Compete or Retreat’ symposium.”

Compete or Retreat indeed.

During the recent budget debate Dubie has been absent and hasn’t presided over the State Senate for two days. Earlier it was reported he had canceled a scheduled candidate debate appearance for April 28 at a debate featuring 7th and 8th graders questions. The debate had already been rescheduled once to accommodate him.
But the man who could be the Where’s Waldo of Vermont gubernatorial campaigns will ride the friendly Vermont Tiger on May 25th.

The event promises to be mostly free from the probing questions of 7th and 8th graders.
Dubie will deliver the morning address at the symposium which will deal with the very serious and immediate economic challenges facing the state and discuss reforms and routes to prosperity. That Dubie actually missed a chance this week to practice governing and deal with the very problems under discussion at the symposium is significant of notice.

If it is true, as the overworked saying goes that 80% of life is just showing up how should we rate Lite Gov. Brian Dubie’s campaign?