Impressive Showing

As this year’s legislative session began in Montpelier, most seasoned observers expected it to be a lot LOUDER.

After all, as Democratic control grew stronger and more assertive in its dealings with the Republican governor, each of the last three legislative sessions grew more and more tendentious and even raucous. The climax came last year when the governor vetoed the legislature’s budget and his veto was in turn overridden—the first time that’s ever happened in Vermont history.

Pundits generally assumed this divisive trend would accelerate in 2010, and the heavily Democratic legislature would tear to shreds the governor’s proposal to deal with a $150-million budget gap. Then there was the fact that 2010 is an election year, and the office of the governor is open for the first time in years. THEN there was the fact that no fewer than three sitting state senators are running for governor (along with a former senator), and so is the lieutenant governor, who presides over the senate.

It all looked like a recipe for unparalleled division, vituperation, and lack of real progress as the various factions jockeyed for their party and personal interests.

But so far, that hasn’t happened. Mostly what has come out of Montpelier is a tone of reasonable respect. The governor has provided a tough budget blueprint. The legislators don’t agree with a good deal of it, but they haven’t been holding it up for political points, either. From all appearances, they’ve been working constructively with the administration, accepting some approaches, modifying others, without name-calling.

Several possible reasons may account for this. First, the budget problems of Vermont state government are so great that any solution is going to require deeply unpopular changes. If the Democrats and Republicans can work together, they provide political cover for each other. It’s hard to heap too much critcism on one side when the other side is doing the same thing.

Or perhaps the governor’s decision not to run for office made some space for compromise with the Democratic leadership. Or perhaps the gubernatorial candidates in the senate are trying extra hard not to be painted in the press as political grandstanders—a charge that is already rumbling through the Vermont Yankee discussion.

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After attending the Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast in Randolph this week, however, one suspects that much of the credit goes to the Democratic Speaker of the Vermont House, the unassuming but very sharp Shap Smith of Morristown.

This is only Smith’s sixth year in the legislature, and only his second as speaker, but he has clearly seized control of the legislature’s agenda. He is the center of a leadership team that knows its own strength but is ready to enter a dialogue based on policies instead of slogans.

Smith’s small-town Vermont credentials are impeccable. He grew up in Wolcott and Elmore and graduated from People’s Academy and from UVM on a scholarship program. His brother “thrived” at Vermont Technical College. He attained a law degree, worked for a New York City law firm for a few years, then was lured back to Vermont to practice law with Dinse Knapp & McAndrew, a Burlington firm with a long record of public service.

His years out of state, he told the Chamber breakfast, served to show “how wonderful the wide world is out there—and just how great and special Vermont is.”

He clearly explained the dilemma of the legislators when faced with budget problems. They’re constantly faced with one-on-one discussions with constituents and lobbyists who are interested in one particular position. As a result, he said, “it’s hard for people to see the big picture.”

In his answers to questions from the audience, it was clear that he tries to see that bigger picture, reframing concerns so as to put them into perspective with other points of view. He revealed a talent for both empathy and analysis which, it seems, has already served Vermont well.