Sam Hemingway

Free Press Staff Writer

The Jim Jeffords For Governor campaign camper was headed up U.S. 2 toward East Montpelier in the summer of 1972 with the candidate behind the wheel.

"He almost drove off the road," recalled Bruce Post of Essex, who was aboard the camper as a just-out-of-college campaign volunteer. "He was the world's worst driver."

What Post also remembers from that day is that Jeffords, Vermont's attorney general at the time, telling him about a decision Jeffords had made to give no special treatment to a powerful Republican who had run afoul of Vermont's environmental laws.

"He told me that day, 'It might cost me my political career, but it's not going to cost me my political conscience,' " Post remembered Monday, the day Jeffords died.

Jeffords did lose the primary, but he went on to serve seven terms in the U.S. House and three in the Senate. In 2001, his conscience led him to leave the GOP, a stunning move that shifted control of the chamber to the Democrats.

Monday, Jeffords died shortly after 7 a.m. at Knollwood, a retirement home for military veterans in Washington, D.C. He was 80 and the last Republican to hold federal office elected from Vermont.

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"While we are saddened by our father's passing, we take comfort in the knowledge that he lived a full life, from the hills of Vermont to the halls of Congress," Laura and Leonard Jeffords, the senator's son and daughter, said in a statement. "We will miss his kindness, his good humor, and his generosity of spirit."

Jeffords, afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, had been in declining health and had lived at Knollwood since retiring from his Senate seat in 2006. Jeffords was a veteran of the Navy and the Navy Reserve, but never served in combat. Jeffords' wife, Elizabeth Daley Jeffords, died in 2007.

News of Jeffords' death Monday morning, first reported by the Burlington Free Press, quickly spread across the state and the nation.

"Jim never lost the fiercely independent spirit that made Vermonters, and people across America, trust and respect him," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

"Whatever the issue — whether it was protecting the environment, supporting Americans with disabilities, or whether to authorize the war in Iraq — Jim voted his principles, even if it sometimes meant taking a lonely or unpopular stance."

In Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin mourned Jeffords' death. Flags at public buildings across the state were lowered at half-staff and will remain so through Saturday.

"The passing of Senator Jim Jeffords will be felt throughout Vermont and our country," Shumlin said in a statement. "We need more like Senator Jeffords. My heart goes out to his children and extended family."

The maverick

Jeffords's maverick political instincts served in him good stead as he navigated Vermont's shifting political currents over 40 years, emphasizing his moderate positions as the state leaned increasingly toward more liberal, Democratic positions.

As a House member, he was the only Republican to vote against President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts in 1981. In 1991, he voted against George H.W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. He supported President Bill Clinton's health care reform and, in 1999, voted against his impeachment.

"He was a partner in our work for Vermont, and he was a friend," Sen. Patrick Leahy said of Jeffords in a statement. "He was a Vermonter through and through, drawn to political life to make a difference for our state and nation. Part of his legacy will also stand as an enduring chapter of the Senate's history."

Leahy and Jeffords both won their first elections to federal office in 1974 and were rivals for a time. They grew closer over the years as they worked on dairy issues and others important to Vermont.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who won the election to replace Jeffords in 2006, said Jeffords was a common-sense Vermonter who accomplished a lot.

Sanders toyed with running against Jeffords in 2000 but decided against it and said Monday he would have passed on challenging Jeffords had Jeffords run for re-election in 2006.

"Vermonters admired him because of his low-key and down-to-earth qualities, and because of his obvious and strong love of the state and the Vermont way of life," Sanders said. "He was an effective champion of education, disability rights, the environment and the arts — and millions of Americans have benefited from his efforts."

Rep. Peter Welch, in an interview, spoke of how Jeffords and his wife helped him during his successful run for the House in 2006, and then in Welch's early months as a freshman congressman.

"He spoke softly but got a lot done," Welch said of Jeffords' career. "There are colleagues of his in the House who still remember him with great respect."

Former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas said Jeffords "will be long remembered as a Vermonter who gave his all and his best in every season of his storied career. As a friend, I will miss him dearly."

Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said he fashioned his career after the example set by Jeffords. "He did what he felt was right, not what he felt would make him popular," Scott said.

The switch

Jeffords' decision to become an independent in 2001 rocked the nation. His move changed the balance of power in the Senate, which had been 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.

The move cost his GOP colleagues their committee chairmanships and, for Jeffords, the loss of several lifelong friendships.

"I have changed my party label, but I have not changed my beliefs," Jeffords said in his May 24, 2001, speech at a jam-packed Radisson Hotel in Burlington where he announced the switch.

"Indeed, my decision is about affirming the principles that have shaped my career. I hope that the people of Vermont will understand it. I hope in time that my colleagues will as well. I am confident that it is the right decision."

The move catapulted Jeffords to rock-star national prominence, praised by Democrats and vilified by Republicans.

He wrote later that even members of his family opposed his decision. Sen. Trent Lott, R-La., and a member of the Singing Senators quartet along with Jeffords, fumed that Jeffords had carried out a "coup of one."

In the aftermath, Jeffords appeared on the covers of Newsweek and Time magazines in the same week. He also was the subject of several death threats, requiring required him to receive Capital Hill police protection for a time.

Back home, he was treated as a flat-out hero. His decision to leave the GOP spawned a popular "Thanks, Jim" bumper sticker and a special-edition beer called "Jeezum Jim," a reference to his modest nature and Vermonty accent.

"I have never been prouder of anything I've done in my life than being with him at that time, the time preceding the announcement and the time after that," said Eric Smulson, Jeffords' spokesman for 15 years. "How he handled himself, how he stood for his principles. He was a great statesman, a great Vermonter, but an even better person."

Others, including close friends and some Vermont Republican leaders, were distraught about the 2001 decision.

"I was very upset over it," said James Johnston of Montpelier, a former Jeffords campaign adviser and close personal friend. "But I know he had good reason to do it at the time."

Johnston became emotional describing the loss of his old friend.

"I guess I knew this day was coming," he said, choking up as he spoke. "I'm not so sure I'm ready to deal with it."

Jeffords later wrote two books reflecting on his controversial move: a 2001 explanation of his decision titled "My Declaration of Independence" and a 2003 memoir, "An Independent Man."

A political life

Jeffords, the son of a Vermont Supreme Court justice, grew up in Rutland, studied at Yale University, received his law degree from Harvard University and entered politics in 1966, winning a race for state Senate from Rutland County.

Two years later, he was elected attorney general, and soon he became embroiled in a fight with International Paper's plant in Ticonderoga, N.Y., regarding the discharge of mercury-laden sludge into Lake Champlain.

Jeffords ran for governor in 1972, but many in the party resented his liberal positions on the environment and other matters, and he lost a bitter primary battle to Luther Hackett, a business-oriented Republican.

"He took it fine," said Bruce Post, recalling his time as a volunteer with the Jeffords for Governor campaign. "I don't think he was bitter or anything."

Hackett lost to Democrat Tom Salmon in the general election. Two years later, Jeffords won the state's lone U.S. House seat when incumbent Rep. Richard Mallory ran for U.S. Senate.

Jeffords initially lived in a camper in Washington after taking the House seat. He went on to win six House re-election contests, then won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1988 when Sen. Robert T. Stafford, R-Vt., another Republican moderate, retired.

Jeffords was a consistent champion of education, helping to pass the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as a freshman House member and becoming so immersed in efforts to support dairy farmers that he was dubbed "Mr. Dairy."

He also worked behind the scenes to help Soviet dissidents Alexander Solzhenitsyn by secretly arranging Solzhenitzyn's move to Cavendish, where the author lived for 18 years before returning Russia. Jefford also aided Soviet dissident Alexander Ginzburg after he was expelled from Russia in 1979.

During the Reagan years, Jeffords fought the president's plans to cut back on environmental regulations and lower taxes. In 1987, he was the only Republican House member to vote with Democrats to pass a $12 billion tax increase. The measure passed the House by a single vote.

Surveys of his votes by liberal and conservative groups determined he leaned slightly toward liberal positions, and Jeffords continued to irritate GOP leaders.

He supported gay-rights legislation, voted for a gun-control measure after saying he opposed it and introduced a bill to force power producers to lower their emissions.

Opinions are divided on what caused him to finally decide to leave the Republican Party. Shortly before he made the decision, he voted against President George W. Bush's budget, saying it was too big on tax cuts and undercut spending on education, child care, veterans and the environment.

Jeffords also might have been irked that the White House had not invited him to an event celebrating the Vermont winner of the teacher of the year, even though Jeffords was chairman of chairman of the Senate education committee.

"Looking ahead, I can see more and more instances where I'll disagree with the president on very fundamental issues — the issues of choice, the direction of the judiciary, tax-and-spending decisions, missile defense, energy and the environment, and a host of other issues, large and small," Jeffords said in the speech announcing his decision.

Jeffords, who had just been re-elected to the Senate in 2000, vowed to run for re-election in 2006 and repeated that assertion until 2005, when he abruptly scheduled a news conference at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington to announce he would leave the Senate at the end of 2006.

"I am feeling the aches and pains that come when you reach 70," he said in his speech. "My memory fails me on occasion, but Liz would probably argue that this has been going on the last 50 years."

Uncharacteristically, he took no questions at the news conference, and appeared tired and unsteady on his feet.

Jeffords' funeral is set for 11 a.m. Friday at Grace Congregational United Church of Christ in Rutland.

Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or shemingway@freepressmedia.com. Follow Sam on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SamuelHemingway.