Interview with William Sorrell |
the camaraderie , though , and . . .
TC : I ’ m guessing the challenge , too .
BS : Yes , it was a great experience . I tried some great cases , including the first case in which DNA was admitted in a Vermont state trial court . In this case , a Milton school teacher disappeared and her body had never been found . Thanks to great work by Leo Blais of the Vermont State Police , we went to a Grand Jury and got an indictment for first degree murder . This fellow who had been the head of special ed in the Burlington School District was located in California , arrested and brought back . He swore that he was innocent , but ultimately offered to make a deal for a reduced manslaughter charge if he led authorities to her body . There were other cases I had that were very rewarding . The State ’ s Attorney typically gets a call for untimely deaths , and I got a call early one morning from one of the higher officials of the State Police saying “ Billy , Governor Snelling died at his house in Shelburne , by the pool .” I drove right down there . It was the Governor .
TC : What a shock that was .
BS : Yes . So Howard Dean , the Lieutenant Governor , became Governor . It wasn ’ t long before he called me up and said “ are you going to stay in that job forever or would you consider coming over and working with me .” Our kids were both in the same preschool so I would see him in the mornings , and we started this sort of a dance ( laughing ). I agreed to join him and was his Secretary of Administration for almost five years , and was then the longest serving Administration Secretary in Vermont history . I think that has since been eclipsed by Kathy Hoyt .
TC : Was your mother alive then ?
BS : No , she died in 1990 . Howard gives credit to my mother for getting him interested in politics . The first three times I met Howard , he was sitting in my mother ’ s living room with my aunt , who was the Democratic National Committee Chair . They would be watching Vermont This Week or Washington Week in Review and Howard would be eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies . I said this about Howard recently , and he got a great kick out of it . I said “ Oh , my mother was saying there ’ s this great young doctor in the neighborhood , Howard Dean , you have to meet him . When I finally meet him , he ’ s sitting there with two older women on a Friday evening eating cookies , and I go , this guy needs to get a life , he ’ s not going to go anywhere !”
TC : That ’ s funny .
BS : I went over there and I did the Administration Secretary job , which is a very difficult job , very interesting but a very demanding job . You make decisions , it ’ s like
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Lucille Ball making chocolates , you know . . .
TC : Things can get out of control quickly !
BS : You just have to make decisions and let them go and keep moving . Then when the AG ’ s job became available , I realized that between private practice , two stints as a criminal prosecutor , being in a senior level position in state government , and being the chief spokesperson for the Governor in the legislature on the budget and tax policy , it was a great resume for being Attorney General . Then , boom , I became the AG , and quite frankly , I didn ’ t realize when I became AG , it was the tremendous job that it is .
TC : You were appointed in 1997 and then decided to run in 1998 , so you must have enjoyed the job ?
BS : Yes , I enjoyed the job immensely . I never saw myself as a big politician . I realized early on , that among the jobs as Attorney General is to enforce the campaign finance laws . One of the least thankful parts of being Attorney General is that you make no friends . The Republican party complains about the Democratic gubernatorial candidate , and then the Democratic party complains about the Republican gubernatorial candidate , or somebody is arguing about the Progressive candidate for Lieutenant Governor . The party that complains is pleasantly surprised that you ’ ve taken the complaint seriously , but the party being investigated or being prosecuted ultimately resents it . When it ’ s your own party , they kind of go , why are you picking on us , we ’ re the good guys . You make no friends .
TC : Do you remember much from your first campaign ?
BS : Yes , what I do remember is I didn ’ t have serious opposition .
TC : That helps .
BS : What happened was there wasn ’ t an announced Republican candidate . Although I didn ’ t campaign for it , I got the Republican nomination as a write-in in the primary . Then a Republican candidate surfaced , but he was too late to get signatures in on the writein . He wanted me to decline the Republican nomination . I didn ’ t campaign for it , but many , many Vermonters had written my name in , so he accused me of being unfair for that .
TC : So the first campaign wasn ’ t really contested .
BS : Right . I had a series of campaigns where , with all due respect , I didn ’ t have serious opposition . Sometimes there were multiple opponents . I remember one year at Johnson State College , Senator Doyle had an AG debate in his class there . I think I had six opponents from the Green Party , the marijuana party , etc . I was criticized for
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not shutting down Vermont Yankee by one candidate , I was criticized by another for not indicting then-President Bush in state criminal court for war crimes , and they were all over the ballpark . The only thing they all agreed on was I needed to be ousted .
TC : Six against one .
BS : Yeah . Ultimately , 2012 that was the first and only serious race I had . My now successor ran against me in a primary . Primaries are tough . When you make prosecution decisions over the years , people remember what they disagree with you on more than what they agree with you on . I had to raise a couple hundred thousand dollars , and I had never raised more than a few thousand dollars in any other race . I hated that . I had to have a paid campaign organization . I got tremendous positive feedback from Vermonters around the state campaigning , but I can ’ t say campaigning was enjoyable . Ultimately , I was successful and that was gratifying .
TC : When you first started in the AG ’ s office , were there burning issues that you wanted to address ?
BS : Well , I was still Administration Secretary , and when it became clear that I was going to become Attorney General , I asked the State ’ s Chief Information Officer to take a look at the computer system in the AG ’ s office . She checked and came away appalled that there really wasn ’ t a computer network , and they didn ’ t have an IT person . I saw the need to modernize the technology . Jeb Spaulding was then-Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and he said “ Bill , I know you ’ re going to be AG , and though it hasn ’ t been announced , is there anything we can do for you ”? And I said , “ Would you have a hearing and bring in the state ’ s Chief Information Officer to talk about the computer system there ”. So , money got put in the budget and a month or two after I became AG , all of these boxes came in with new computer equipment and we had a full time systems person .
TC : How many people were in the AG ’ s office at that time ?
BS : Considerably fewer than the approximately ninety-eight assistant AG ’ s we have now , spread throughout several offices . We ’ ve certainly grown quite a bit over the years . A major change for the office was when I came in , we were all on one floor and didn ’ t even have a conference room or an employee kitchen . If you wanted to wash out a coffee cup , you had to use the janitor ’ s industrial sink where the mop water was being dumped . I was ultimately able to talk the Legislature into allocating money into the construction bill to do a significant renovation and expansion of our physical space . Now we have a much more modern
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