Hoff's move to the Democratic center

Has former Governor Philip Hoff become a more centrist Democrat than he was as a young Governor in the 1960's? That's what his endorsement of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for the 2008 presidential nomination suggests.

When Hoff ousted Republican Governor Ray Keyser in 1962 (by 1,348 votes), the 38-years-old one-term State Representative became Vermont's first Democratic Governor since before the Civil War.

"This was a watershed of changing of politics. I recognized that at the time, although very few people in Vermont, having had a hundred and four years of Republican governors, realized the political scene in Vermont was changing, Keyser said later, appearing on a Vermont Folklife Radio documentary.

Hoff pushed for economic, environmental, and social reforms that had been atypical of past Vermont Governors - including a project with New York City Mayor John Lindsay that brought minority students from New York to work on summer projects at Vermont state colleges.

In 1968, Hoff broke with President Lyndon Johnson over the war in Vietnam, and became the first Governor to endorse Robert Kennedy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"My recommendation to Humphrey that he resign as Vice President in order to establish his own identity asumes more validity day by day," Hoff told a reporter that summer.

In August 1968, two months after Kennedy had been assassinated on the night of the California primary, Hoff remained uncommitted - but just two weeks before the convention, Hoff criticized the establishment candidate, saying that Vice President Hubert Humphrey remained under Johnson's shadow. He endorsed Eugene McCarthy, who later released a list of potential cabinet appointments he would make if elected - he said he would like to name Hoff as his Secretary of the Interior.

Hoff's split with Johnson and Humphrey became a factor in his race for the United States Senate in 1970. He faced a primary challenge from Chittendon State Senator Fiore Bove, a Johnson supporter. Bove held Hoff to less than 70% in the Democratic primary, and then endorsed conservative Winston Prouty, the three-term GOP incumbent. Prouty won the race, 59%-40%.

Hoff, now a highly respected elder statesmen, didn't run for office again until 1982, when he won his first of three terms in the Vermont Senate.