DATE=9/30/03

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-37900

TITLE=Vermonters on Howard Dean

BYLINE=Nina Keck

TELEPHONE=260-1623 (Editor)

DATELINE=Rutland, Vermont

EDITOR=Faith Lapidus

CONTENT=

_

INTRO: Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean is widely perceived to be the most liberal of the ten Democratic candidates for President. He's also been one of the loudest critics of President Bush and the war in Iraq. But as Nina (NYE-nuh) Keck reports, back in his home state, opinions of Howard Dean are much more personal and complex.

AUDIO: CUT 1 BARBERSHOP AMBI Use under as needed, lose after Cut 6

TEXT: Pip's barbershop in Rutland, Vermont is the place to go if you want an inexpensive haircut. You can also get your fill of hunting stories, local gossip … and these days, presidential politics.

AUDIO: CUT 2 MUSCATELLO

"We hear a lot of conversation about him. People see him on TV and stuff and they say, it's amazing he's gotten this far."

TEXT: Marty Muscatello has been cutting hair at Pip's for 35 years. With a clipper in one hand and a fast-moving pair of scissors in the other, he talks about Howard Dean.

AUDIO: CUT 3 MUSCATELLO

"You're in a shop where some of us dislike the man. We don't think he did a lot for us while he was here. The biggest thing is the civil union thing."

TEXT: Vermont is the only state in the nation to grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights and privileges as married couples. Howard Dean signed the controversial Civil Unions bill into law in 2000 and many Vermonters are still upset about it.

AUDIO: CUT 4 MUSCATELLO

"A lot of people didn't like that and still don't, but hey, to each his own. But he was here and what did he do for us? What did he do? We've lost all kinds of big companies in this state . . . didn't do a thing for us. That bothers us here especially in Rutland, because we've lost a lot of businesses."

TEXT: Customer Tom Whitney sits nearby and nods his head. He had a welding business that he wanted to expand. But he says the Dean administration created more environmental red tape than jobs. Vermont has what many consider to be an overly burdensome permitting process for new businesses. Environmentalists argue that the stringent requirements have saved the state from excessive sprawl and over development. But others, like Mr. Whitney, say the laws have discouraged much needed job growth.

AUDIO: CUT 5 WHITNEY

"Don't' get me wrong, I love the environment, and do whatever you've got to do to protect it. But it was at a great cost to jobs, to the working poor. And he gives a lot of talk about he would help small businesses, well, I had a small business while he was governor of the state of Vermont and they did everything they could to stop me from getting my business started."

TEXT: Despite the criticism, Howard Dean was reelected as Governor five times and his supporters point out that he eliminated the state deficit and improved Vermont's ability to borrow money for new projects. He also balanced the budget and set up rainy day funds for bad economic times. A physician by training, Doctor Dean also expanded health care coverage for Vermonters under 18. Patty McIntosh, a single mother with two young children in Rutland, likes that. She says it also feels good to have a candidate she can believe in.

AUDIO: CUT 6 MCINTOSH

"Love him or hate him I've heard a lot of things from people around the state about Howard, but I haven't heard anyone call him a phony. And I haven't heard anyone call him a liar and I think that's one thing that we are missing in politics so greatly is trust. I don't think we know who we can trust anymore, but I trust Howard."

TEXT: Being on a first-name basis with the candidate is not unusual here… even if you've never met the man in person. Political science professor Eric Davis says in a small state like Vermont, politics is personal.

AUDIO: CUT 7 DAVIS

"A lot of it is face to face campaigning. Going around to little events of between 10 and 50 people in the small towns all over the state. And Howard Dean is very good at it. And over five campaigns and eleven years as governor, he met a lot of the people in the state."

TEXT: Professor Davis, who teaches at Vermont's Middlebury College, says that while the national media have labeled Howard Dean a liberal, most Vermonters would describe their former governor as a moderate someone who is socially liberal, but fiscally conservative.

AUDIO: CUT 8 DAVIS

"Here in Vermont there is a pretty well organized Progressive Party and the Progressives and some of the more liberal Democrats had some run-ins with Governor Dean on several issues over the course of his eleven years in office. Over the state budget, over his tax policy, and the real liberals in Vermont would not say Howard Dean is one of them, even though some of the national media are describing him as 'the liberal ex-governor of the state of Vermont.'"

TEXT: But Vermonters are used to looking past a particular label. The state has the only Independent member of the House of Representatives, and Vermont's long time Senator, James Jeffords, left the Republican Party to become an Independent in 2001. Tim Andrews, a graduate student at the University of Vermont, says, republican or democrat, for him, the presidential race boils down to who'll be best for the future.

AUDIO: CUT 9 ANDREWS

"I think young people are starting to get a little bit scared about the future in terms of having jobs that pay for their existence and having government that supports them in the basics of life."

TEXT: Mr. Andrews and many others in Vermont believe Howard Dean is the best candidate for the White House. Other Vermonters strongly disagree. One thing most in the state do agree on, however, is how surprised they are that their former governor has come this far. For Coast to Coast, I'm Nina Keck in Rutland, Vermont.