By Patrick Mcardle
Staff Writer
Brooke Paige has some strong opinions about how life — and elections — could be better for Vermonters, and he’s running for secretary of state and attorney general so he can be part of the changes he would like to see.
Paige, 67, described himself as “semi-retired,” after having worked in industrial sales. After he lost two jobs because the company for which he was working were sold he decided to go into business for himself.
Still living in Vermont, Paige ran newsstands and coffee shops in the Philadelphia subway system for more than 20 years until he sold the business and retired.
“I’ve been involved in politics for a while. Tried to do the best I can to institute some change. While I haven’t been successful in winning offices, other than Justice of the Peace in my little town of Washington, I have been able to affect some change, especially in elections,” he said.
Paige, who is running as a Republican, said he ran in previous elections for governor and attorney general mostly to demonstrate what he believes is the weakness of open primaries.
Also, he pursued an unsuccessful attempt this year to have the Orange County Vermont Superior Court block the state from sending ballots to all registered voters.
Having what he calls a “vote-by-mail, mass-mailing” election this year is something Paige believes is a “test run” to use the system in the future as well. Paige said he doesn’t support the idea now or in the future because he believes Vermont is “ill-prepared because we do not have sufficient integrity of our voter checklist.”
Paige said “ideally” Vermont would have a voter identification system.
State officials have expanded the mailing of ballots to registered voters over concerns that a more traditional election day in November may bring people together and spread COVID-19.
Paige referred to COVID as something that was a “major concern in the spring.” He also said he’s opposed to the mask mandate imposed by Gov. Phil Scott in response to the pandemic.
According to Paige, the mandate is “probably unconstitutional.”
“Most of the studies I’ve seen do not suggest that masks are of particular benefit, OK, except when worn by those folks who are currently sick,” he said.
Paige said the “underlying real concern that no one talks about” is that masks are only effective for people who already have COVID. He said the reason for the mask requirement is that if only people who needed masks wore them, it would identify them as being COVID-positive.
He said he would rather the state issued a suggestion for wearing masks.
“I think that people don’t react well when they’re told to do things, especially things that don’t look like they’re not all that necessary,” he said.
Paige said he would like to see a large reduction of the number of professions that are overseen by the Office of Professional Regulation. He believes they could be moved to the Department of Health and includes among that group dentists, barbers, beauticians and tattoo artists.
He added that he believed the office could process complaints received in a more efficient and responsive way.
If elected, Paige said he would like to spend time with Vermont students and expand their civics education, which he said was something that happened more frequently under previous secretaries.
Part of his experience with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office has been multiple lawsuits against state officials in which he’s involved, Paige said.
“All of those were represented by the attorney general’s office, so I’ve had a bold smattering of experience with the AG’s office going up against not only (Secretary of State Jim) Condos but also the Agency of Education,” he said.
In his experience, Paige said, the attorney general’s office has little patience for litigants, especially those who are not represented by an attorney.
“The joke over there is, they want to keep your case unripe, until it becomes moot. They do that generally by raising issues of standing and venue and jurisdiction or timeliness and do not want the cases to reach the underlying issues being raised in the lawsuit,” he said.
Paige also complained that under Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan, there had been “little to no activity or pushback against State Police being labeled racists.”
“The attorney general should be a bold advocate for the State Police and the sheriff’s office and the local police, not one that’s quick to condemn those law-enforcement officers for the activities of a tiny handful of folks that might be acting inappropriately,” he said.
Paige said there was too much focus on social justice and not enough on criminal justice.
He expressed support for Second Amendment rights as well.
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