You'll recall that gubernatorial candidate Gaye Symington released partial, sort of pseudo, personal financial information and took a fair amount of flak for it. Is still taking flak from Gov. Jim Douglas, who's ditching his nice-guy public image on this one and slapping her around about it in ads.
You'll also recall that Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie doesn't want to release his personal financial information, though Democratic challenger Tom Costello did.
So you may have been wondering how Douglas, who calls Dubie his co-pilot, would nuance the argument that Symington needs to reveal, but Dubie doesn't.
He did it yesterday in Barre at a news conference on economic development. It's a question of where you draw the line, he said. Are you going to require every candidate for every office to reveal personal financial info? "I think it's a different level of accountability with the governor's office," he said.
Gubernatorial candidates need to share their information to tell people where their conflicts of interest might lie, he said, because a governor appoints people to regulatory board and approves state contracts. A lt. gov. does not. A lt. gov. is more like a legislator, he said.
Douglas also at one point referred to the issue as a distraction. Is it a distraction when he brings it up? Or just when others do?
- Terri Hallenbeck
