Robert Stafford

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Robert Theodore Stafford (August 8, 1913 – December 23, 2006) was an American politician from Vermont.

In his lengthy political career, he served as the 71st Governor of Vermont, a United States Representative, and a U.S. Senator.

A Republican, Stafford was generally considered a liberal, or "Rockefeller" Republican. Stafford is best remembered for his staunch environmentalism, his work on higher education, and his support, as an elder statesman, for the 2000 Vermont law legalizing civil unions for gay couples.

Early life

Stafford was born in Rutland, Vermont, to Bert Linus Stafford and Mabel R. (Stratton) Stafford. Bert Stafford was a 1901 graduate of Middlebury College who practiced law in Rutland, and was President of the Rutland County National Bank. He served as Rutland County's State's Attorney, and was mayor from 1915 to 1917, President of the Vermont Bar Association in 1930, and Chairman of the Vermont Board of Education.

Stafford attended the schools of Rutland and was a 1931 graduate of Rutland High School. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Middlebury College in 1935. While there, he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He briefly attended the University of Michigan Law School before earning his LL.B. from the Boston University School of Law in 1938.

Later life

In his later years, Stafford was regarded as the elder statesman of Vermont Republicans. In 1998, Jack McMullen, a recent arrival to Vermont, declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator. As related by Chris Graff, longtime Vermont bureau chief for the Associated Press, McMullen's candidacy sustained an immediate blow when Graff interviewed Stafford about the January 1998 ice storm and other current events. During the discussion, Stafford persistently got McMullen's name wrong, calling him "Mulholland". Graff wrote that he tried to politely correct Stafford, but finally realized that Stafford's intent was to convey his opinion that McMullen was too unknown and too new to Vermont to be a viable candidate. The lede in the resulting story was that Vermont's senior Republican was of the view that McMullen had not lived in the state long enough to represent it in the senate, and Stafford's dismissal of McMullen as "Mulholland or whatever his name is" became a running joke among reporters and political operatives.

In the Republican primary, McMullen faced Fred Tuttle, a retired dairy farmer who had starred in a mock documentary film called Man with a Plan, a comedy about a retired farmer who decides to run for Vermont's seat in the United States House of Representatives. Tuttle's candidacy was partly an attempt to generate publicity for the film, and partly an attempt to mock McMullen as a carpetbagger and flatlander (Vermont slang for an out-of-stater) who had moved to Vermont only because he thought it would be easier to run for the Senate there than in more populous Massachusetts, where McMullen had previously resided. On primary day, Tuttle beat McMullen 55 percent to 45. Tuttle immediately announced his intention to vote for incumbent Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, after which the two made several joint appearances. On election day, Leahy defeated Tuttle and several minor candidates to win reelection.

In 2000, Stafford lent credibility to Vermont's movement to allow civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. In announcing his support, Stafford remarked that if two people united in love, he could see no harm to any individual or any society.

Stafford died in Rutland on December 23, 2006. He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Rutland. His wife Helen Stafford died February 27, 2011, at the age of 93.

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Start of career

Stafford was admitted to the bar and practiced law with the Rutland firms of Stafford, Abatiell, and Stafford after graduating from law school. He began working as a Republican and served as Rutland's grand juror (prosecutor in the municipal court) from 1938 to 1942.

Continued career

Stafford served as Rutland County's State's Attorney from 1947 to 1951 and practiced law in a new firm, Stafford and LaBrake.

Following his Korean War-era service, he began serving as deputy attorney general for the state from 1953 to 1955, and attorney general from 1955 to 1957. He was elected lieutenant governor of 1956 in 1956 and governor of 1958.

Stafford's ascension to governorship and governorship was unusual in that he did not take the route of most Vermont Republicans. Republicans in Vermont have used the Mountain Rule, which allowed for governor and lieutenant governor to alternate between the east and west sides of the Green Mountains, and governors to serve only two years in office, beginning in the 1850s. The United States is located in the United States. Senators were also allocated according to the Mountain Rule, with one from the east and one from the west. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor were picked by the party years in advance and served in leadership positions in the Vermont General Assembly, including Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives and President of the Vermont Senate. Stafford was one of Vermont's few governors not to serve in the legislature. The Democratic Party had risen to prominence in Vermont by the late 1950s, and Stafford secured the governorship over Bernard J. Leddy with just 53.3 percent of the vote.

Stafford was the Republican nominee for Vermont's lone seat in the United States House of Representatives, and all sides of his party endorsed him because he was the party's top candidate after losing by 100 years in Congress in 1958. Stafford won, and was reelected four times after serving in the House from January 3, 1961 to September 16, 1971. Stafford supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968, as well as the 1964 Amendment to the United States Constitution and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

He resigned from his position in the House in September 1971 to accept a nomination to the Senate, partially filling the vacancy posed by Winston L. Prouty's death in September 1971. Stafford won the special election in January 1972 to put out the remainder of Prouty's term and reelection twice, including the 1976 election against outgoing Governor Thomas P. Salmon. He was withheld for a little over 17 years before his retirement in 1989. From 1981 to 1987, he chaired the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

While in Congress, he helped pass the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (also known as the Stafford Act) to coordinate federal natural disaster assistance.

The Winooski 44 resistance was due to Stafford's encouragement of weapons transfers to Nicaraguan contras.

"In a preview of Stafford, writer Philip Shabecoff wrote that keeping his own counsel meant he would give the worst interview of any public official in the capital." Stafford said, "I talked more when I was younger."

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