Chris Keyser, son of former Governor Ray Keyser, is taking on powerful Vermont House Democrat William Notte in a race for a Rutland district seat
Part II of a Two-Part Series on election runs in Rutland for House of Representatives
By Russell Flannery
The last time a member of the Keyser family was on a ballot for public office in Vermont was in 1962. Then incumbent Republican Governor Ray Keyser of Proctor was defeated by “Young Turk” Democrat Phil Hoff who backed a larger state government role in society.
Keyser’s son Chris, one of three children, “wanted to be my own self” early in his career and go a different direction than his lawyer-politician father. Young Keyser worked in outdoor recreation management in Quechee before accepting a leadership role at a family-owned energy company, Keyser Energy. There, he led nine acquisitions and eventually built a multistate petroleum and propane distribution business with annual sales of more than $10 million. “I enjoyed the deal-making – of finding out what your issues were, see if I could solve those, and create a win-win,” said Keyser, now living in Rutland, in an interview. Nearing retirement, Keyser sold the business in 2011, stayed on as the company’s chief executive until he was aged 66 in 2019, and moved on to consulting and industry-level board work part-time.
This year, things changed. Keyser became frustrated by the big increases in property taxes and looming large increases in residential and business energy bills passed by Vermont’s Democratic Party-controlled legislature this spring over a veto by Republican Governor Phil Scott. Though also dismayed by what he considers to be toxic political culture in Montpelier, Keyser was also unhappy about the big pay raise approved by the legislature’s Democratic majority last year but vetoed by Gov. Scott. “When that came up, there was a complete disconnect between what I felt (was fair) and what was going on” in Montpelier, Keyser said. “I had the audacity to think I could have some influence over that.”
Finally, Keyser said, Scott himself called while the businessman was out hiking near his Rutland home one day and asked him to take on powerful incumbent Democratic Party House Assistant Majority Leader William Notte in the race for a Rutland City seat in the state House of Representatives. “I was hiking, and I was mad – stuff goes through your head,” Keyser said.” “My phone rang and I didn’t recognize it. It was the Governor, and he asked me to run,” he recalled. “I’m not a politician. I’ll be one.”
Republican Senator Brian Collamore of Rutland also called to encourage Keyser to run. “They got me at a weak point,” Keyser smiled. “But it was all of these things that led up to it.”
Rival Notte, who manages a Phoenix bookstore in downtown Rutland, was among two of the city’s House representatives to vote for the tax increase, higher energy bills and pay raise. The other was Mary Howard.
These days, Keyser spends time out knocking on doors and then trying to estimate the number of members of his city district that will support him. “I’m a numbers guy,” said Keyser, who keeps a log of the more than doors he’s knocked on a 8×11-inch sheet of paper printed out from a spreadsheet. Keyser views district residents without a Notte campaign poster in front of their home as a potential vote for him.
“As my father used to say, when you’re campaigning, people that are for you will build you up and tell you you’re the greatest thing. People that don’t say anything are the people you have to watch out for,” he said. The 71-year-old Keyser does wave-ins at traffic intersections – including one recently with Collamore in front of a convenience store; Keyser figures that he will need about 900 votes to win, and expects to get them.
Keyser’s latest step back from retirement is a part of a wider effort by Republicans that were trounced in the more recent legislative election two years ago. That showing, he feels, owes in part to the disproportionate number of Democratic and Progressive voters in the Burlington area population.
That means working harder to elect moderates elsewhere, including Rutland. “Keyser” lawn signs dot the streets along with Notte’s near his residence. Keyser accepted an interview in a cramped home study that abuts a crowded kitchen whose refrigerator is plastered with pictures and notes. He lives with Jane Keyser, his wife of 38 years; they have three children and four grandchildren.
Regarding Vermont’s big real estate tax increases this year, Keyser’s view is simple: the state’s increased take from homeowner income far exceeds inflation, and particularly hits middle class and lower-income families; the measure also didn’t do anything to address underlying high costs in Vermont for education that help drive up taxes.
“I got this sort of uneasiness about me,” Keyser said. “It’s all regressive taxes. The Democrats don’t stand for that.” Higher property taxes are part of a self-feeding downward economic trend that hurts the state’s competitiveness, makes it difficult to attract workers and grow new businesses, he noted.
Keyser said voters are also worried about the economic fallout of homelessness, a big issue in the Rutland area, where hotels designed for tourism routinely report crime by homeless dwellers that hurts the city’s business and visitor appeal. “There’s a very strong feeling that” many living in hotels aren’t from the Rutland area, and that the state needs to better manage the problem, he said. For the truly needy, Keyser said, “We’re going to get you housed and fed,” but more details and assessments are needed about how to move the group into a sustainable life.
- The author, a former long-time editor at Forbes, graduated from Mt. St. Joseph in Rutland and lives in Rutland.