The Vermont Standard 9/23/04

At Home With The Senate Candidates: Despite Adventures, Hartland Always Beckoned Matt Dunne

By Cassie Horner, News Correspondent

Hartland- Matt Dunne's life experiences have taken him to Brown University as an undergraduate, to the Vermont legislature as a 22-year old, to Washington, D.C. as the head of Americorps Vista and back to the Vermont legislature, this time as a senator for Windsor County.

But wherever he's been, the family home in Hartland has beckoned him insistently. This is where he grew up and now, in the years after his mother's death, is where he lives with his wife, mystery writer Sarah Taylor, plus a company of chickens, a flock of sheep, two dogs- Belle and Possum- and two cats, Dagliesh and Rubin.

The cats represent the dual interests of the Dunne-Taylor family in mystery and politics. Dagliesh was named by Taylor after a detective in P.D. James' novels; Rubin was named by Dunne after Robert Rubin, the treasury secretary he admires.

Given Dunne's history, it's not surprising to find him in politics. Both of his parents were active in the community and in issues that extended out into the larger arena. His father, an attorney, was very involved in the civil rights movement as a young man. He was even sent to jail for 1 1/2 years for resisting arrest. Later, he worked for John Lindsay, mayor of New York, as a civil rights advisor. His mother taught at Dartmouth College and headed the education department there for many years. She also led some national education reform.

When Dunne was 13, his father died, leaving him, his younger brother Josh and mom with the responsibilities of a property they cared deeply about. "When my dad passed away it was tough time," he says. "The place was always a significant undertaking. My parents were amazingly in love. It was hard." Without much ado, he and his mother split up chores that ranged from tending chickens to paying bills. "You grow up quickly," he comments.

But life was a lot of fun, too. The house continued to be a gathering place for all kinds of folks who wanted to stay for days or even a year. Asked who did the cooking, Dunne laughs, "Oh, Mom. But dishes, no way!" He learned to be a super efficient cleanup guy in the kitchen after she went to bed. Taylor appreciates this because she loves to cook, but doesn't like to share the kitchen.

Dunne went to high school in Hanover because that was where his ride took him every morning when his mother went to Dartmouth. Once he could drive, he acquired a Plymouth minivan with 100,000 miles. "It was hard to be cool!" he observes. After graduation, he attended Brown University in Rhode Island, relishing its celebration of each student's individuality.

Dunne majored in public policy, although he spent a lot of time in the theater department. When asked to define when he decided on his major, Taylor quickly answered for him, "Since kindergarten!" She recalled a story about how he begged to stay home to watch the Watergate hearings on television when he was a little boy.

In 1992 after graduation, Dunne was back in Vermont to try and figure out the next step. He learned about an open spot in the House for the Hartland- West Windsor district and decided to run. "I ran a grass-roots race. I knocked on every door in the district," he recalls. "Much to many people's surprise and my own, I actually won."

The way Dunne and Taylor met is a story in itself. They first encountered one another when she, a budding newspaper reporter, interviewed him at the Catamount Brewery Festival. They became friends and finally started to date. They were engaged in 2001 and married the following summer. She has strong ties to the area because her family spent a lot of time in the summer at a cabin in Plainfield, NH when she was growing up.

After being re-elected three more times, Dunne was asked by President Clinton to head Americorps Vista in Washington, D.C. The mission of the department of about 6,000 people is to focus on ways to build community and fight poverty. Part of his job was travelling around the country to witness conditions firsthand in troubled areas. "You don't understand the Mississippi Delta till you see the Mississippi Delta," he says. "There is poverty in just about every region."

Dunne and Taylor returned to Hartland after Dick McCormack decided not to run again for Windsor County Senator. Dunne was elected to the position in 2002. He also works at Dartmouth College as assistant director of the Rockefeller Center that is dedicated to support of students who want to go into non-profit or public service careers.

The couple is firmly rooted in the house built in 1791 on the King's Highway that connected Boston and Montreal. It even served as a stopping place for the people driving turkeys to the market in Boston. His parents bought the property in the late 1960s. Dunne and Taylor spend a lot of time doing things together that relate to managing the land and the animals. "We move sheep together," he explains with a smile. She comments, "If we feel we haven't seen each other enough we go into the woods for a walk and take the dog." Indoor togetherness includes a TV show; "We have a shared addiction to the Sopranos," she laughs.

Dunne is firmly connected to Vermont. He eagerly drags visitors onto the land around the house to see newly cleared fields. He can point out an old cellar hole where a house once stood and identify the trees bordering the meadow. And he knows and values his neighbors. "The community of Hartland really brought me up," he says. "My parents were incredible role models. I continue to have role models including (Windsor County Senator) Peter Welch.

Dunne On The Issues

Education: "I usually divide education into funding, content and higher education," Dunne says. He stresses the importance of income sensitivity in a funding plan. "The way we pay for education should be based on ability to pay," he observes. He would not have supported acts 60 and 68 if they had not included income components. Regarding content of education, he points out that the federal No Child Left Behind law is "devastating to schools struggling all across the state." He opposes the law's "one size fits all" strategy. "I strongly believe in standards that match the values of Vermont," he comments. Higher education in the state suffers, he says, from high tuition costs. He supported legislation that gives Vermonters in the Peace Corps, Americorps and military a break on tuition.

Healthcare: "It's the number one issue I'm hearing as I go door-to-door," Dunne says. He supports a strategy large corporations take: Vermont should use its population count to bid for services, thus driving down the cost of health care and prescriptions. "Because we are a small state we have an opportunity to lead the rest of the country," he observes.

Transportation: Repair of highways and bridges is in a "serious crisis in the state," Dunne says. "It is driven in large part by the enormous amount of money socked into large projects." He believes that the state should give more money directly to towns to fix their own bridges. When this does happen, the work is done faster, more efficiently and costs less. He also observes that the decision to hold off on the new highway around Burlington was supposed to divert money to bridge projects.

Affordable Housing: "You can't separate affordable housing from the economy," Dunne notes. "It saddens me when people…can't stay in the community they grew up in and want to raise their children in." He favors public/private partnerships to make better use of resources. "Think vertically," he says, suggesting we utilize space in downtown areas by creating apartments on the second and third floors above businesses.

Economy: Dunne describes a legislative package of economic development to support innovation and create jobs from that. "Vermont has always been at its strongest when it is at the center of innovation," he says. "(People) create better ways to do things…We have all the talent and ingenuity to compete in Vermont. We need to be sure we can capitalize on it as quickly as possible." That will happen when there is stability provided by such things as universal healthcare, access to childcare, and access to technology.