0 Comments | Seven Days, Jul 7-Jul 14, 2010 | by Bromage, Andy

Will youth and experience be a winning combination for Google exec Matt Dunne?

Five of the six may be almost indistinguishable on policy issues. But the men and women competing to be the next governor of Vermont are vastly different people. And their individual stories may better indicate how they’d govern than any number of speeches, videos and slogans. To that end, Seven Days reporter Andy Bromage has been getting to know the gubernatorial candidates, at their jobs, in their homes and on the campaign trail. In the fourth of six profiles, he goes door to door with youthful, ambitious and persuasive Matt Dunne.

You get an aerobic workout campaigning door to door with gubernatorial candidate Matt Dunne. Dressed in dark slacks, starched white shirt and tie, the youngest Democrat in the race sets a brisk pace when he’s working a neighborhood. Last week, the 40-year-old Hartland resident found himself pounding the pavement in Burlington’s affluent Hill Section.

Like any experienced politician, Dunne, a former state lawmaker, has canvassing down to a science: If people are home, he tells them in 15 seconds who he is and why they should vote for him. Then he points them to his website and suggests they call with any questions. If no one answers, he hangs a “Dunne for Governor” leaflet on the door handle and scribbles a personal note so they know it was him – not some teenaged campaign volunteer – who dropped by.

With a whole state to win over, campaigning for governor one house at a time might seem like a waste of a candidate’s time – a Sisyphean task. But Dunne, an executive at Google, swears by it. It’s how, at age 22, he won a seat in the Vermont House. It’s how the young lawmaker later won a state Senate seat and a primary for lieutenant governor in 2006. And it’s how Dunne is preparing for the August 24 primary. Every vote counts in a five-way race where as few as 12,000 voters could decide the winner.

Dunne describes retail politics as “a powerful tool … I get a lot more energy and feel like I’m connecting with voters when I do this.” Translation: He’s very good at it.

Though he trails in the polls and in name recognition, Dunne is an aggressive campaigner who will politely work an undecided voter as long as he or she allows. His powers of persuasion were on display at the Hill Section home of an old Statehouse colleague, Ann Hallowell, who served in the legislature with Dunne more than a decade ago. Although she gave Dunne a big hug and assured him how badly she wants a Democrat to beat Republican candidate Brian Dubie, Hallowell told Dunne she’d already sent a check to Doug Racine.

“I’m just worried you’re not well known enough to win,” Hallowell said. “I wish there was some magical way of suddenly having you become the focus.”

Dunne leaned forward in his chair, rolled up his sleeves and made his pitch.

“We’ve raised over $200,000, enough to be able to communicate effectively,” Dunne began, his deep-set eyes locked on Hallowell’s
men’s dress shirts