Making Government Responsive and Responsible

Lieutenant Governor, 1999-2000

• Chair of the gubernatorial Blue Ribbon Task Force on the organization of state government.

Lieutenant Governor, 1997-1998

• Helped pass one of the strongest campaign finance reform bills in the country.
• The Burlington Free Press said: “Credit Racine for setting a tone that meant, at session’s end, several senators could not recall a single party line vote this year. It means party and politics are secondary. It means the people come first.” 4/23/98.

State Senator, 1992

• Fought against proposed changes to welfare programs including a work requirement for welfare recipients in order to continue receiving benefits
• Fought to avoid proposed cuts to the Aid to Needy Families with Children program (ANFC)

State Senator, 1990

• Doug criticized how some legislators used cuts to human services to their advantage: “There are very few positions out there that you can cut and not have an impact on services. This is giving [legislators] the best of both worlds, we can go home and say we cut a bunch of positions and then when a position cut comes down and affects something in a local district we can complain about it. I don’t think that’s fair. It’s not politically or intellectually honest.”

State Senator, 1985

• One of two Senators, along with then Senate president pro tempore Peter Welch, appointed by Governor Madeline Kunin to her Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, formed to examine the relative fiscal rights and responsibilities of towns, regional commissions, and state government.

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