A self-described “small town lawyer” from Caledonia County is running for attorney general as a Republican. Deborah Bucknam says she’d use the office to hold state government accountable to its citizens.
Bucknam is the only Republican running for attorney general so far, and will likely face Democratic Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan in the general election. Incumbent Attorney General Bill Sorrell, a Democrat, is stepping down after 19 years in the office.
Bucknam’s small law firm in St. Johnsbury has represented individuals and small businesses for nearly 40 years. She says many of those clients have struggled to navigate state bureaucracies, and that as attorney general, she’d create a “citizen protection” office to help address Vermonters’ grievances.
“What I’d like to do as attorney general is to see if we can work with state agencies to make the government more transparent and more accountable to individual Vermonters,” Bucknam says.
Bucknam herself was held to account by the state’s Professional Conduct Board in 1992 for “repeated instances of purposeful ethical violations” against a client she represented in a workers compensation claim.
The board found that Bucknam acted in a “vindictive” manner against the client, withholding key information about his case and wrongfully inflating his legal bills.
Seven Days first reported on Bucknam’s candidacy last Friday; news of her 1992 reprimand appeared Monday morning in the comments section of a political blog called “The Vermont Political Observer.”
“I was representing someone and I got mad, I got angry, and I let my anger … overcome my good sense and good judgment,” Bucknam says of the incident. “And I’m still embarrassed by that thing that happened over 25 years ago, but it was a great lesson for me.”
Bucknam’s only previous experience in office was as town moderator in Walden. She’s been active in the Vermont Republican Party, and served briefly as vice-chairwoman of the state party in 2013.
Update 6:23 p.m. This post has been updated to add a link to a post about Bucknam's reprimand.
