A year after losing its last paid staffer, the Vermont Republican Party is seeking to rebuild its professional ranks.
To that end, party chairman Jack Lindley on Tuesday announced the hiring of a new political director: 29-year-old Texas native Brent Burns.
“We’ve got a whole lot of things to do,” Lindley says. “Rebuilding the party structure, helping me with fundraising. Everything under the sun is his to do.”
There’s no question Lindley and Burns have a big job in front of them. The party’s presence in the state has dramatically contracted in the few short years since former Republican governor Jim Douglas won his last statewide race in 2008. The GOP holds just one statewide office — that of Lt. Gov. Phil Scott — and is vastly outnumbered in the legislature.
Last fall, it struggled to match the organization and professionalism of the Vermont Democratic Party, which swelled to 16 paid staff members at the height of the campaign season.
Burns, an Army veteran and former political consultant, says he knows he’s marching into an uphill battle.
“You’re not always going to win,” he says. “We get pretty comfortable winning in Texas, but there’s definitely room for improvement [in Vermont]. The way I’m looking at it is as an opportunity to see what we can do as a party to not only separate us as a state, but also to build the brand of what it means as a Vermont Republican.”
He adds, “We need to define ourselves.”
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“The way I’m looking at it is as an opportunity to see what we can do as a party to not only separate us as a state, but also to build the brand of what it means as a Vermont Republican.”
Vermont Republicans were once a pretty strong brand, Vermont being solidly republican almost every damned election from the 1850s-the early 1990s. VT was the only state never to go for FDR. In the 90s, not only did voters defect, but high profile politicians defected as well, as the word “republican” came to mean something very different from what Vermonters were so loyal to for so long. If they want to rebuild the brand, they might want to look at what the brand stood for in VT when it was popular, rather than what it stands for in say Texas right now.
Being a republican moving to Vermont is the definition of optimist.
Someone needs to ask the Republicans if Burns is going to be anything more than a part time staffer.
His personal website says “I recently moved to Burlington, VT to attend graduate school” http://bdburns.com/ — if he’s a full time student, wonder how much time he’s going to have to work for the party.
Today on VPR’s Vermont Edition he pointedly refused to answer a question about how much he is being paid.
My guess is that the party just hired some junior level staffer to work 12 hours a week and slapped the title “Political Director” on him to make it sound like they are a real political party.
Terkeanderson, I’m glad people are starting to pay attention to our party! To answer your question, I am waiting a year at least to go back to school. I need to establish residency for it to be affordable for me to go back to school. That was the plan when I was leaving Kuwait, and havent updated my personal website. Most days people don’t go to it so it’s not been a priority.
And since you will find out anyways, yes, I am taking this job as a full-time employee. and I am making a base salary of $48,000 a year, a 50,000 pay cut from what I would be making private sector doing satellite communications outside of Vermont. Money isn’t everything if you don love your work and where you live. I was taken by suprise at the question because we dont ask those sort of questions where I’m from, not on the radio at least. As far as being a low level staffer, you could probably as some of my previous soldiers what kind of leader I am at any level in the organization. I think this job is a really interesting opportunity to do some good for Vermonter, and I am really happy to be here.
I hope I answered your questions, and thank you for your interest in the party! I hope we can bring you on the team. All the best -bdb
Mr. Burns, do the local Republican Party, and the State of Vermont, a favor and do not use Washington style rhetoric or tactics here. Do not follow, emulate, or take direction from the national Republicans. And do not engage in the hyper-partisan, negative, over-the-top and guilt-by-association politics that have been the hallmark of the executive directors of the Vermont Democratic Party in the last few years.