The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 4

4A- -Th SurtngMMi (Vt i (im Pru. Sutdary. JUy 15, 1990 Vermont congressional race Smith lands endorsement of former critics me even though they knew I couldn't win. That's the group that can do Bernie in or carry him over the top." On issues such as child care, gun control, family planning and the minimum wage, Firkey said Smith now has a voting record that Democrats and independents can live with. "I think a lot of the Poirier voters are going to Peter Smith, Firkey said in the parking lot outside the IGA.

"A lot of people who are tired of the same old laundry Bernie has been hanging out for the last 20 years are ready to vote for Peter Smith." Thinking the unthinkable As recently as 12 months ago, the idea that traditional Democrats such as Firkey and Poirier could ever endorse Smith was unthinkable. "In 1988 I hated Peter Smith, or at least I hated his image. I thought he was just a rich kid with a silver spoon in his mouth who had no real compassion for working people," Firkey said. the day as he campaigned outside the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service's building in SL Albans.

"It's gotten me in trouble a few times, but I like people and I mean well, so people usually understand what I meant in the end." Troublesome comments Throughout his political career, however. Smith's asides have caused him problems. For example, in 1988 Smith blurted out "Even if I believed it I wouldn't say it," when asked about Poirier's controversial comment that dairy price supports had contributed to farm problems and might have to be abolished in a few years. Several weeks ago, the Free Press was preparing a news story on the first leaked results of the Becker poll, which showed Smith with a 10-point advantage. An hour later, Sanders responded with his own internal poll that showed him six points ahead.

Two hours later, as deadline neared, Smith quipped on the phone from From page 1A Three months ago, for a variety of personal and ideological reasons but mainly because of an incident involving Sanders late in the 1988 congressional campaign Poirier endorsed Smith over Sanders. I wish Bernie well, and I'm glad he's finally got the one-on-one shot that he deserves, but I'm endorsing Peter Smith," Poirier said. "I told the Smith people that I'm not going to bad-mouth Bernie, because I like Bernie. This Is about the issues. Campaign of contrasts The 1990 congressional race between Smith and Sanders shapes up as a classic heavyweight duel.

The contrasts in style, substance and approach to the campaign are fascinating: Smith, 44, is the son of a Burlington banking family, a career educator and politician elected to Congress after losing badly in his 1986 gubernatorial bid. Sanders is the son of a Brook- lyn paint salesman and PAUL TEETOR. Fres Press Washington: "That's the same poll that showed him winning two years ago." It was a clever putdown of Sanders and his poll, and it made the final Free Press 'In 1988 I hated Peter Smith, or at least I hated his image. I thought he was just a rich kid with a silver spoon in his mouth who had no real compassion for working Ron Firkey St. Albans mayor made news as a socialist mayor of Vermont's largest city.

He is an outspoken, charismatic man who won four consecutive mayoral elections and lost six straight Republican Rep. Peter Smith, locked in a neck-and-neck congressional race with independent challenger Bernard Sanders, campaigns hard last week outside the Immigration and Naturalization Service building in St. Albans. mont Press Association. Each candidate was asked: If you aren't on the ballot, who would you vote for? Poirier said he would vote for Sanders.

Smith said he would vote for Poirier. But when it was Sanders' turn, he refused to answer. Poirier thought it was a bad mistake. "Philosophically and ideologically, I was most aligned with Bernie, and I expected him to answer the way I had honestly and based on the issues," Poirier said. "Instead, he said it was a dumb question and he refused to answer it.

For the first time, I really realized that Bernie's whole thing is Bernie, and not the issues." Smith said the incident illustrated the difference between his "No one else wanted to do it," Smith recalled with a half-smile. "I was at the beck and call of the college morning, noon and night. It was very intense," Smith said. By 1978, the seven-day workweeks had begun to take their toll and Smith felt it was time for a change. Political involvement Smith resigned, and a few weeks later he challenged Lt.

Gov. T. Garry Buckley in the Republican primary. "It was gutsy, but it just kind of happened. A couple of friends came to me and said they thought T.

Garry Buckley could be beaten," Smith said of his sudden decision to enter big-time politics. But Smith lost the general election to another newcomer: Madeleine M. Kunin. Sanders. "Peter Smith has tried to project that George Aiken-Bob Stafford liberal Republican image, but no one's buying it.

It's like he's this little rich kid running around saying 'me, Corcoran said. Smith is sensitive to the charge that he is a manufactured politician, a son of the privileged who specializes in running for office. "That's nonsense," Smith said. "Anyone who knows my history, who knows my record, knows that isn't true." Born Oct. 31, 1945, Smith enjoyed all that was good about the post-war economic explosion and the 1950s Ike Age.

He grew up on DeForrest Road and spent much of his time delivering The Burlington Free Press and playing tennis and Little League baseball. He attended Burlington High School for his freshman year and spent four years at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. us approach and Sanders' icono-clastic approach. "None of us like those kind of hypothetical questions from the press, but we tolerate it and we answer the questions," Smith said. "I 'In 1988 I got the 19 percent who were die-hard Democrats.

In the polls now I see them as the undecideds That's the group that can do Bernie in or carry him over the Paul Poirier 1988 Democratic congressional candidate If 1 He was ac-cepted at Princeton in 1964 and spent two years dressed in a Tiger suit on the college side statewide races. Already, the campaign is off to a fevered start, creating strange alliances such as the Poirier-Fir-key-Smith combination. On the other side are Sanders and the right-wing National Rifle Association members who will do anything to defeat Smith including voting for Sanders. The NRA feels Smith broke a campaign promise that he would oppose gun control. Sanders and Smith have clashed over leaked polls and Smith's call for a prosecutor in the savings-and-loan scandal.

But the biggest early battle has been over a national labor endorsement and its $5,000 prize. Sanders was endorsed by the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association. But the endorsement was rejected by national NEA leaders who also withheld their standard $5,000 campaign contribution after intense lobbying by Smith and other Republicans, who pointed to Smith's 90 percent NEA approval rating. The Vermont chapter came up with a $3,001 contribution for Sanders on its own. While pointing out the importance of money in the campaign, the incident also illustrated how both candidates are searching for a constituency that will vault them up to the coveted 50 percent mark in the November vote totals.

"It's the strangest election I've ever seen," said University of Vermont political scientist Garrison Nelson, a Smith critic who has watched both candidates for the past 15 years. "You've got an incumbent with a party but without a constituency running against a challenger with a constituency but without a party." Last Sunday's Burlington Free Press "Voice of Vermont" poll showed Sanders and Smith each with a third of the vote, with the other third undecided. Poirier voters key Most political pros place Poi-rier's 19 percent from 1988 at the heart of the undecided vote. The battle between Smith and Sanders for the 1988 Poirier voters the loyal Democrats and the Irish and Italian Catholics is seen by many as the key to the race. "In 1988 I got the 19 percent who were die-hard Democrats," Poirier said.

"In the polls now I see them as the undecideds. If you take those supporting Dolores (Sandoval) plus the undecideds, those are the ones who voted for news story. There was only one problem: It wasn't true. The Sanders campaign complained loud and long the next day. In fact, Sanders had never released a poll in '88 that showed him leading.

Smith later called it a misunderstanding. "I never meant to suggest that Bernie released a poll that showed him ahead in '88. My point was that he always has optimistic polls," Smith said. "I was just joshing, and I may have been out of bounds." Smith made another misstatement a week later when his call for a special prosecutor in the savings-and-loan scandal made Sanders take a hard look at Smith's voting record on the federal bail-out that may cost taxpayers more than $500 billion. "It's the biggest financial rip off in history, and Peter Smith voted for it," Sanders said.

Sanders called a news conference to wonder why Smith had voted against an amendment that would have required the bail-out to be kept within the federal budget. Late in the day, Smith replied from Washington that if he had voted to keep the bail-out in the budget, it would have resulted in huge Gramm-Rudman-Hollings budget cuts that would have hurt the poor. "Bernie should do his homework," Smith said. But the fine print in the amendment states that it specifically precluded Gramm-Rudman-Hollings cuts from being triggered by the $50 billion in bonds being proposed for the bail-out in June 1989. Late last week Smith admitted that the amendment which was ultimately defeated did contain the exemption.

"In my initial response, I should have been clearer. It is true that the first $50 billion was exempt, but many of us were concerned that $50 billion was just the tip of the iceberg and that has turned out to be true," Smith said. It is Smith's enthusiasm and his verbal double-faults that most rile his critics, and many southern Vermont Democrats endorsing Sanders have portrayed Smith as a lightweight. In the south considered the key battleground of the contest most of the '88 Poirier Democrats such as Rep. Tim Corcoran, D-Bennington, and Rep.

John Murphy, D-Ludlow, are endorsing But on the eve of Monday's candidate filing deadline it appears that 1990 is the year most Democrats have decided to let Sanders, in his seventh try for statewide office, have his one-on-one shot at a general election without a strong Democratic candidate. That means Democrats such as Firkey and Poirier have to make some hard choices. Sandoval, the likely Democratic candidate, is receiving minimal support the Free Press poll showed her getting just 1.3 percent of the vote. And some moderate Democrats and independents have serious reservations about Sanders, a Democratic socialist who has been unrelenting in his criticism of the Democrats and unbending in his call for radical tax reform. "Bernie Sanders has said some pretty harsh things about the Democratic Party, and I can't forget that.

I'm proud of what the Democratic Party stands for and what it has done," Sen. Edgar May, D-Springfield, said. Unlikely beneficiary This has left Smith as the unlikely beneficiary of Democratic defections. Smith, the first president of the Community College of Vermont, is a 44-year-old former one-term state senator and two-term lieutenant governor who jumped into politics in 1978. He is making his sixth run in a statewide election.

His call for a special prosecutor in the savings-and-loan scandal was endorsed by everyone he met on the streets of St. Albans and Swanton on July 3. "That thing really burns me up," Doris St. Pierre said. "Peter Smith is the only one that seems to want to do something about it." But in Washington, Smith's non-binding resolution although co-sponsored by 240 congressman and praised by NBC commentator John Chancellor was taking a pounding from the White House, the Justice Department and others who called it unfounded, ill-conceived, amateurish and staged for political reasons.

On the streets of St. Albans and at the dairy farms of nearby Swanton, Smith referred to his call for a special prosecutor, saying he will press forward regardless of the criticism. "No one ever accused me of being afraid of talking too much," Smith said with a chuckle later in lines, exhorting the student body to cheer for Bill Bradley now Sen. William Bradley, and other less-storied Princeton athletes. After graduating magna cum laude in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in history, Smith got his draft notice and boarded a bus for Albany, N.Y., for his physical exam.

"I was scared to death," Smith recalled July 3 as he was driven by Wendell Dashno from IGA to Wynn Parradee's dairy farm on the outskirts of St. Albans. But Smith said he flunked his physical because of shoulder and hip problems. Two years later, he earned a master of arts degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School and headed back to Vermont for a job with the Vermont Education Department. He soon leaped into the project upon which he has built his career the creation of the Community College of Vermont.

Smith volunteered to do the grant-writing, fund-raising, personnel recruiting and organizational work necessary to make a college without walls become a reality. Thus he became CCV's first president. have felt for a long time that Bernie's abrasive-ness and his inability to work with other people will come home to roost." Repeated attempts to contact Sanders late last week were unsuccessful. Poirier never forgot the incident, and as he watched Smith establish a voting record in Washington he was pleasantly surprised. "Peter's voting record has become liberal there's no other way to say it," Poirier said.

"I can only judge him on his first two years, but Peter has supported many programs that he spoke against in 1988, like the ABC child care bill, the minimum wage and the family leave bill." Still, the incident at the '88 debate is the main reason Poirier has now endorsed Smith over Sanders. "If it hadn't happened, my endorsement might have broken the other way this year, because this has been a tough decision," Poirier said. "All I know is that back in 1988, if I couldn't win, I wanted Bernie to win. Now I'm endorsing Peter Smith." "The truth is we ran out of money and energy after the primary. We had nothing left for the general election," Smith said.

For the next year-and-a-half. Smith said, he was an educational consultant. Critics say he was marking time while he prepared to run for office again. In 1980 he won a seat in the state Senate from Washington County and in 1982 he was elected lieutenant governor when Kunin challenged a reluctant Richard Snelling for the governorship and lost. Smith was re-elected in 1984, but in 1986 he lost to Kunin for the governor's chair.

Final results showed Kunin with. 48 percent, Smith 37 percent and Sanders 15 percent. The 1986 race began the Smith-Sanders rivalry. In 1988 Sanders closed the margin to 41-38, and the most recent polls show the son of Princeton and the son of Brooklyn College neck-and-neck. Crucial endorsement Poirier's endorsement of Smith, which could be crucial to deciding the 1990 race, had its origin Oct.

22, 1988 two weeks before the 1988 election during a debate sponsored by the Ver Former political writer is influential right-hand, nnan mont. He was the first to tag Smith with the front-runner label in the general election, and he was one of the first to pick up on Sanders' late 'Spin doctor' The main difference in the pre-1989 Smith and the post-1989 Smith appears to be Karvelas, who knows Vermont issues backward and forward. In the contentious 1990 campaign, Karvelas has emerged as what political observers call a "spin doctor," trying to put his candidate in the best light and taking an increasingly dominant media role. Unlike most chiefs of staff, Karvelas is frequently quoted in many of the news stories about the Smith campaign. "Karvelas is smart, he knows how the issues play in Vermont, and I think that's why he's being quoted in so many stories," Poirier said.

Karvelas is in nearly constant contact with Vermont media. Bernard Sanders by making a non-binding call for a special prosecutor. "Smith wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol, (former U.S. Sen.) Robert Stafford, the consummate insider. But instead he has been transformed by Karvelas into the high-profile challenger of the establishment," said UVM political scientist Garrison Nelson, a Smith critic.

"Karvelas has him out on a limb." In addition to writing news stories during the 1988 campaign, Karvelas had a free hand as a political columnist every Monday morning, and he filled his column with political gossip, speculation and analysis most of it right on target. His column was required reading for every politician, campaign staffer and news junkie in Ver- Karvelas knows Vermont issues By Paul Teetor Free Press Staff Writer In his role as capital bureau chief for The Burlington Free Press, David Karvelas was, by most accounts, the most influential political writer during the 1988 congressional campaign won by Republican Peter Smith. Today, as Smith's chief of staff, Karvelas has become an equally influential figure. Although Smith denies it, some political pros credit Karvelas with convincing Smith to break his anti-gun-control pledge to sponsor new restrictions on semiautomatic assault rifles, and to steal the savings-and-loan issue from independent congressional candidate For instance, there was a flurry of calls the day the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association endorsed Sanders. Karvelas, James Bressor also a former Free Press capital bureau chief and other Smith staffers quickly circulated the names of teachers who did not agree with the endorsement.

"I have noticed that Dave has been calling a lot recently," said reporter Karen Conway of WPTZ-TV. "Generally hell call to say he'd like to respond to what Bernie said, and hell say, 'Do you want to talk to I guess he calls me because he knows me from the news conferences in Montpelier." According to congressional guidelines, a congressional staffer is not allowed to spend government time on any election activ ities. However, staffers are allowed to partake in campaign activities on their own time. Asked whether he is calling reporters about endorsements, polling data or other campaign issues on government time, Karvelas replied: "Absolutely not." But Karvelas added that there is often an overlap between legitimate congressional issues and campaign issues. "Obviously part of my job is dealing with the press," he said.

"What usually happens is I talk to a reporter about a multitude of issues. Then if they want to talk about campaign stuff I can't suddenly hang up the phone." Disputed conversation A few months before the September 1988 Democratic congressional primary, Karvelas dropped Turn to KARVELAS, 5A surge. KARVELAS Almost two years later, the man Karvelas went to work for has stunned both those who had voted for and against him with his embrace of every liberal program from gun control to child care. Smith "actually voted for programs that he spoke against during the 1988 campaign," said Paul Poirier, the 1988 Democratic candidate who is backing the incumbent's re-election bid..