BELLOWS FALLS — A tradition of town meetings and dinner-table political discussions frames Michael Obuchowski's interest in continuing to run in, and win, 19 previous races for a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives.
This month, Obuchowski announced his candidacy for his 20th term in Montpelier. As he has since 1998, he is teaming up with fellow Democrat Carolyn Partridge of Windham to run for the two seats in the Windham-4 district.
They are unopposed in the Aug. 24 Democratic primary, and will face independent Christopher Moore of Bellows Falls on Nov. 2.
Obuchowski, who served as house speaker from 1995 until 2001, is an unassuming, soft-spoken, quiet man. He listens more than he talks. In a rare interview, the fourth-generation Bellows Falls resident spoke about a lifetime in politics and what continues to drive him to serve his hometown.
Learning from the masters
“Obie,” as he is affectionately called by his loyal constituents, learned politics at the knees of some of Vermont's leaders in times of great change.
As a youngster, Obuchowski's mother would take him and his family to visit his Aunt Carolyn, who was married to Senator George Aiken's son, Howard, in Putney.
George Aiken was governor of Vermont from 1937 to 1941, and a U.S. senator from 1941 to 1975. He is said to have broken the monopolies of the major industries of banking, railroads, marble and granite companies in Vermont. He also encouraged farmers in the state to form cooperatives to market their crops and access electricity.
“We visited George and Beatrice [Aiken's first wife] at their place all the time,” he recalled. “[Aiken] was family.”
Obuchowski's uncle, James Kane, married to his mother Amelia's sister Jenny, was a frequent visitor as well.
Obuchowski said he learned to have sympathy for workers from Kane, a Vermonter, who served as president of the United Electric, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) from 1981 to 1987. When Kane was elected, he is quoted as saying, “It's hard for me to imagine that I'm not still a worker in the shop.”
Obuchowski recalled dinner on Wednesdays and Sundays at his grandmother Helen Gierko's house in Springfield, when he would sit at the table and just listen to the women talk politics.
“They always had something to say,” he said with a laugh.
Obuchowski said that the consensus at the table was that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt “was a good guy.”
FDR “looked out for us,” Obuchowski said, smiling.
Obuchowski's mother, aunts, and grandmother were self-reliant Vermont women. During high school, Obuchowski's mother went to work in the factories in Springfield. She met the man who would be his father, who had returned home from serving in the Navy during World War II. They were married in 1952.
“I guess there was a kind of matriarchal political leadership interest there,” Obuchowski observed. “When they got to talking and didn't want me to hear, they would switch to Polish.”
“I learned a lot just listening. I learned to care about people, to want to listen and learn what people's stories were, what they had to say,” he said. “I'm still learning to this day.”
Obuchowski says the caretaking style of FDR, leadership with explanation in the form of his fireside chats and taking the side of regular people, became his own model for his political career.
“I also try to follow the Golden Rule, to treat others as I would want to be treated,” he added.
“My heroes are people like Mother Theresa who took care of the poor in India, and Lech Walesa [the Polish electrician and union leader who helped lead the peaceful overthrow of the communist government there in the 1980s] whose hand I shook when he spoke at Middlebury [College],” Obuchowski recalled.
Obuchowski said he felt sorry for him. Why? “Because I made him shake my hand three times,” he laughed. “Once wasn't enough!”
“These were true freedom fighters,” Obuchowski said. “Walesa took on a very powerful regime and broke into Polish politics.”
“César Chávez is another freedom fighter,” he added, “[as is] anyone who fights for the people, working conditions and people's rights.”
Standing up
Obuchowski said he learned from these examples that when the rights of people are in jeopardy, the right thing to do is to step up to protect them.
When the Vermont Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to create a mechanism by which same-sex couples could receive benefits equal to those of married heterosexual couples under the law, Obuchowski said he analyzed the issue and felt on principle that the rights of people were being violated.
As House Speaker, he supported the civil union law in 2000, even though he knew doing so would come with a high political cost. He lost his speakership and his party lost its majority in that fall's election.
Obuchowski said he similarly rose in defense of Vermont children whose quality of education was being compromised because of lack of funding. In 1997, he helped pass Act 60, which guaranteed that funding for education was equally available for all school districts in Vermont.
Listening to people
Obuchowski says he didn't start out as a politician. “It was the early '70s, when we were in the middle of a lot of political ferment, and I wasn't getting a response to queries I had made [to legislators]. They weren't being responsive to their constituents.”
He put his hat in the political ring and won his first House race in 1972.
“I enjoy listening to people when they contact me,” he said. “By the time I hear their concerns, they've already done everything they can do. The legislative process is an appeal forum of last resort.”
“It feels better to [know I] have helped them.”
If he's home, “I'll answer the phone,” he said with a smile. “I try to get back [to all e-mails and messages] within 24 hours.”
Obuchowski said his early lessons at the knees of his grandmother, his mother and her sisters, have helped him to hear with a compassionate ear. “Compassion comes through identity,” he said.
“It's always been an eye-opening and heart-throbbing experience,” he said, speaking of his career as a legislator.
“This small state is packed with miracles,” Obuchowski said. “Many people have had a terribly hard life and made it through. They are resilient. [Vermonters] are helpful and generous people.”
“I like people,” Obuchowski said. “I like to examine their thinking. When I go into a room where I'm supposed to meet as many people as possible, I prefer to find a new face and discover what makes them tick, what makes them an individual person.”
“I like to meet everyone in a whole sense,” Obuchowski explains.
“I don't have a strong political ego. I'm a shy, reserved person. It's an effort for me to reach out. I have to get psyched up,” he said. “But I do.”
Vermont politics
But Obuchowski, has no desire to move into the national arena, feels everything he could want can be found in the state of Vermont.
“There's so much left to discover,” he explained. “Our politics are different, too.”
Obuchowski recalled an anecdote that that came to him from a colleague in Montpelier - about a lobbyist who wanted to buy favor. The lobbyist was told to put his money back in his pocket.
“We don't do politics like that here [in Vermont],” Obuchowski's colleague told the nonplussed lobbyist.
Obuchowski remembers a couple of incidents when he was attacked by political adversaries.
“It was just a slap,” he said, shaking his head. “It was outside the context of the political environment.”
“You have to bring yourself to forgive [them] even if it's difficult to do then. It's what you should do … eventually.”
But Obuchowski believes that “most people define the political and personal quite well and successfully in Vermont.”
“Vermont is a special place where people can learn the skills of how to get along with respect for others,” he said. “That draws people [here].”
“Do you know how many people in national leadership live here?” he asked. “For such a small state, it's astounding, really.”
Obuchowski, currently chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, wanted to be clear that while he is a “social liberal, I'm a fiscal conservative, which presents challenges, especially in the upcoming session.”
“We're facing a $100 million deficit,” he said. “We're going to need a lot of [Vermonters] stepping up to help each other. They already are,” he affirmed.
“It will be a challenge in terms of resources,” he said, referring to keeping sustenance, education, health and welfare as priorities.
“I think the people of Vermont are our best resource, whence the power resides, and where it comes from,” he stated. “It's a sacred trust handed to me to represent the interests of the people.”
Life outside politics
Obuchowski has worked as the personal assistant to Greg Wilson, CEO of Basketville of Putney, for 26 years.
“And, yeah, I've been out of the state. I get out every week,” he grinned. “I go to Shaw's [the supermarket in Walpole, N.H.]”
Before he entered politics, “I was a scientist,” he said, “a botanist.” He says he wanted to be an astronaut too. “I got as high as the third floor” in the Vermont Legislature, he said, grinning.
Obuchowski said he had other choices along the way as well. “I was accepted by the Air Force Academy [in Colorado Springs],” he recalled, “But after discussions with friends and family, I decided that wasn't for me.”
“I couldn't see myself dropping bombs on people,” he said. “People are too important to me,” he said - even if they're enemies.
He has taken a new major step in his life. He recently became a married man. His bride is Clare A. Buckley, an attorney at Kimbell, Storrow, Buckley and Hughes LLC in Montpelier. They met 14 years ago and have been together ever since.
“I'm finally ready,” Obuchowski said.