Attacks on Dean's legacy go unanswered

Christopher Graff, bureau chief for The Associated Press in Montpelier, VT has written a open letter to Governor Dean on behalf of all Vermonters, which has appeared in almost all of Vermont's weekend papers. So far, no response from teh Dean campaign. It raises some questions that Dean will have to address. Some excerpts:

From what I am reading in the newspapers in Iowa, you tout your ability to balance the Vermont state budget as one of your chief qualifications to be president.

But Jim Douglas and Con Hogan say the state budget is not balanced and spending is spiraling out of control. I heard Hogan at one forum say something about a $100 million deficit.

Who’s right?

I saw in a newspaper in Texas where you were talking up your programs to provide health insurance to Vermonters. But the gubernatorial candidates here are saying those programs are in tough financial shape and face big deficits if they are not cut back.

Who’s right?

And in state after state I see that you talk about your ability to attract jobs. But Douglas, Hogan and even Lt. Gov. Doug Racine are saying the state’s economic development programs all need overhauls. And while you talk about creating thousands of jobs in the past decade, the focus here is on the loss of 7,000 jobs in the past year.

Some of the candidates have resurrected that old saw that Vermont is antibusiness. Act 60 is under fire, with Douglas blaming it for the sharp increases in property taxes.

Who’s right?

In the past decade, the slightest attack on you or your record would have generated a quick response – at a news conference, on television, radio or in a newspaper op-ed piece.

This year there is only silence.

I know you’re not running for re-election, but in a sense this election has a lot to do with you – and the record you will carry into a presidential bid.

Maybe that record looks pretty good as you listen to the applause and cheers in Iowa and Texas and New York and South Carolina and New Hampshire, but that’s not the picture here.