Sanders plays unique role
as minority of one

By Erin Kelly -- Tuesday, October 22, 2002

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bernie Sanders had preached for years about the evils of corporate greed and warned that American workers were getting ripped off while executives lined their pockets.

So when the newspaper headlines of the past year screamed of the scandals at Enron, WorldCom and ImClone, the six-term congressman could justifiably say, "Told you so."

But as Sanders pushed for sanctions against corporate criminals last summer, another Vermonter -- Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy -- quickly delivered. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, won bipartisan support for a measure he wrote to strengthen criminal penalties against executives who defraud workers and the public.

That experience reflects both Sanders' strength and his weakness as he runs for a seventh term as Vermont's lone House member.

He is often far ahead of other lawmakers when it comes to identifying and shining a spotlight on problems that affect people's lives -- from Gulf War Syndrome to pension protection to prescription drugs. He was the first member of Congress to lead a caravan into Canada to publicize the fact that prescription drugs are cheaper there.

But his ability to solve those problems by passing legislation is limited by the fact that -- as the sole independent in the Republican-led House of Representatives -- he is a minority of one in a chamber of 432 current members.

In contrast, Leahy and Sen. James Jeffords, an independent who is part of the Democratic caucus, are members of the Senate majority and serve as committee chairmen with enormous influence in the smaller, 100-member chamber.

"My views in many ways are out of the mainstream," the 61-year-old congressman said during a recent interview in his Washington office. "What I told the people of Vermont when I first ran was that I would introduce new ideas -- to think out of the box and offer new approaches that eventually will get adopted into the body politic. That's my role."

It's a role he plays well, and one that in many ways reflects the go-your-own-way attitude of his home state, some political analysts say.

"I think Bernie is building a small national reputation on Medicare prescription drug benefits and social justice issues," said James Moore, a former Burlington resident and political scientist who analyzes congressional races for television news stations in Portland, Ore.

"His effectiveness is comparable to a (House) Democrat with the same number of years in office. When you're in the minority, there's only so much you can do," Moore said. "He's using the force of his personality and his expertise on certain issues to push his ideas as far as he can."

Critics say it's not enough.

"Congressman Sanders has no real clout to get things done for the state," said Bill Meub, a moderate Republican attorney and former Rutland City School Board member who is running an uphill battle against Sanders. "What big federal appropriations has he brought back to Vermont? What major bills of his have passed to help Vermonters' lives?"

Sanders acknowledges he can't offer up a list -- as Leahy does each year -- of the tens of millions of dollars he's secured for the state. But he does offer a two-page summary of his accomplishments for the past two years.

They include: $1 million for a wind energy project in central Vermont; $850,000 for Burlington's Good News Garage, which provides cars to poor working people; and $750,000 for an Israeli-Arab Peace Partners program, which brings young Jews and Arabs together in the United States for an exchange program designed to promote peace.

The congressman also helped a Richford health clinic win approval as a federally qualified health center, entitling it to more than $400,000 in federal grants and low-cost prescription drugs for its patients.

And he helped create a new national dairy program that replaced the expired Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact with direct government payments to Vermont dairy farmers. Sanders' effort to pass the program in the House failed narrowly, but the senators say it helped build momentum for them to push it through the Senate.

"I think I'm smarter now, more knowledgeable than I was when I came here 12 years ago," Sanders said. "I've learned how the process works, how you can be more effective by taking the right idea to the right person and knowing when is the best time to strike."

Ultimately, Sanders -- known for his unruly white hair, Brooklyn accent and impassioned speeches -- is judged by Vermonters more for how hard he fights than how often he wins, say Vermont officials who have worked with him.

"Even if they don't think he's effective on average in Washington because he's something of an outsider, they know he's going to represent their issues to a fault," said Peter Brownell, a Republican who was mayor of Burlington from 1993 to 1995 and now serves as director of administration for the Vermont Department of Education.

"He has a very powerful track record with seniors, veterans, farmers and labor unions," Brownell said. "He's not a warm and fuzzy guy. But on the issues he's involved with, he leaves no doubt in people's minds that he is committed to them."

Even Meub volunteered that Sanders does a good job at constituent service -- helping seniors get their Social Security checks or ensuring that veterans sign up for their benefits. Strong service to individual Vermonters is one way that Sanders can inspire loyalty, Moore said.

In a recent trip to Washington, Vermonter Ed Laviletta, a leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, said the group supports Sanders because he works hard to ensure that veterans get their benefits even as he takes an anti-war stance against military action in Iraq.

"Bernie has been fighting along with us," Laviletta said. "We know we can count on him."

However, if Democrats wrest control of the House, Sanders, who is part of the House Democratic caucus, will need to do more than wage war. He'll need to win more battles, Moore said.

"Bernie Sanders is going to have to do some real negotiating, get himself a seat on a committee like appropriations, and show that he can be just as effective as a Democrat in the majority would be," Moore said. "If he sets up realistic expectations and meets them, he'll be fine. But if he or his friends set up expectations too high and he can't come through, he's going to get burned."

Sanders is in no danger of being singed in November, political pundits say. The congressman is considered a shoo-in for re-election.

Two years ago, Sanders won with 69 percent of the vote against Republican Karen Ann Kerin .

Despite Meub's candidacy in this year's election, officials at the National Republican Congressional Committee declined to comment on the race, saying they don't believe they have a chance against the popular progressive.

No Democrat has run against Sanders since 1996.

Sanders smiles at the irony. He is, after all, the socialist whose 1990 victory over Republican Rep. Peter Smith upset the Vermont political establishment. Today, he is the entrenched incumbent who can't be beat.

Friends say the years have mellowed Sanders a bit, but it's hard to tell. On a recent day on Capitol Hill, the still energetic congressman ran headlong down a House corridor to a banking committee meeting, where he railed at the panel's failure to hold hearings on the International Monetary Fund's bailout of Brazil and the multinational corporations that invested there.

A few minutes later, he was standing in front of a television camera from a Vermont station, expressing his outrage at veterans' being placed on waiting lists for health care.

"Has Congress changed me or have I changed Congress? I think both," Sanders said. "Every day you change or you're not human. But the priorities I work for today are the exact same as they were when I got here. The difference is that now you hear a lot more members of Congress talking about prescription drugs, about the unfairness of trade policies, about affordable housing. It might not be my name on the bills that are ultimately passed or in the newspaper headlines. But Vermonters know I'm still in here fighting."