Estimates are that 600 people came to Stratton Mount School on Sunday to remember the late Rep. Rick Hube, R-South Londonderry, on what would have been his 63rd birthday. He died unexpectedly just before Christmas.

Friends assembled a book of memories and photos full of stories about Hube inviting friends into his house to wait out a snow squall, mentoring a young man curious about politics, skiing, sailing — and carrying out endless pranks.

Frank Cioffi, president of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corp. and fellow University of Vermont trustee, recounted phone pranks — Hube dialing Cioffi’s phone so it went off while he was in a meeting or leaving call-back numbers that turned out to be Hooters in Indiana or court diversion in Rutland.

“Throughout the years he made me laugh so hard at times that my side hurt,” Cioffi wrote, but added, “Please don’t think that because he was funny, that he wasn’t serious about important issues. He was.”

Numerous contributors noted how Hube put his mark on legislative discussions about school finance, taxes and redistricting during his decade in the House.

“The great thing about Rick,” wrote childhood friend Rod Morgan, “the memories and the stories are always good ones.”

- Nancy Remsen

Labels: Mark Snelling; Vermont politics, Rep. Rick Hube

Push the button or not?

If you are the governor of a state, there are constant decisions to be made about whether to accept this invitation or that invitation. You, or your staff, ponder what you can fit into your schedule, of course. but you also consider who you want to please and ultimately, how it’s going to make you look.

When Elton John comes to the fairgrounds, you go.

When the Rotary Club asks if you can make it, you go.

What do you do, though, when somebody asks you if you’ll push the buttons to blow up a bridge? Keep in mind that government has allowed this bridge to deteriorate so badly that it had to be closed without warning, creating arduously long drives for commuters, hospital patients and others, some of them in your own hometown. States will have to shuffle budgets, put other projects on hold and shell out extra money to pay for temporary ferry service. Does a politician want a photo opp like that?

Gov. Jim Douglas chose to go for it. Standing hatless in an open field with snow steadily falling, he pushed the two buttons that were said to ignite the implosion of the Lake Champlain Bridge on Monday morning.

More than one person expressed surprise over that Monday, but Douglas declined to characterize the implosion as an indication of how things went awry with a historic bridge once heralded for its cutting-edge design. He called it a step forward, a step toward construction of a new bridge.

“It’s the first step toward a new beginning,” he said.

Even those lives have been disrupted by the bridge’s closure and are angry at government officials who let it agreed Monday that they’re ready to move on.

And just in case not everybody’s ready to see it that way, Douglas is not running for re-election. This photo opp won’t show up in an opponent’s campaign ad. There has to be something freeing about that. Plus, plenty of people probably think it’d be cool to push the buttons that blow of a bridge.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Republican grip

In an article this week, FoxNews.com looks at whether Republicans will lose their hold on all New England governor seats in 2010.

According to the article, “Jennifer Duffy, an editor with The Cook Political Report, said Republicans could face a total wipe-out in New England, though they do have some chances to keep a foothold. ‘If these races had taken place in 2008, they'd all be gone, but it's still possible,’ Duffy said.”

You can read it here: www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/17/republicans-struggle-hold-new-england-governors-races/.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Memorial services

A memorial service for Rep. Ira Trombley, D-Grand Isle, who died Dec. 20, will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 2 at the South Hero Congregational Church, South Street in South Hero.

A memorial service for Rep. Rick Hube, R-Londonderry, who died a day later, is expected to be held Jan. 31. Details are to be posted at www.rickhube.com.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Gov. Jim Douglas, Rep. Ira Trombley, Rep. Rick Hube, vermont politics

A quick glimpse into the humor of Rep. Rick Hube.

As Gov. Jim Douglas noted this morning in a statement on Hube's death, Hube traveled to China with the governor and a group of Vermont business owners this year.

House Minority Leader Patti Komline relayed the story yesterday of how Hube joked on that trip that he was having Peking duck with a lame-duck governor.

Another Hube story relayed to me today: Last session, when Sen. Vince Illuzzi managed to snare funding for Sterling College, mysterious invitations went out around the Statehouse to an event honoring Illuzzi at Sterling College. There was, however, no time or date, only a phone number on the invitation. It was, of course, Illuzzi's cell phone. The mysterious hand behind that invitation: Hube.

He loved the quick joke but he also loved sinking his teeth into the policy and he was always had his finger on the politics of the Statehouse. If there was a close controversial vote coming up, he'd always be game to speculate on the vote count. He was usually at least close.

Share your Hube stories. And your Ira Trombley stories.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: Gov. Jim Douglas, Rep. Rick Hube