The Vermont Senate is mourning after two of its longest-serving members died within a week of each other.
Democrat Dick Mazza died on May 25th. The 84-year-old was the second-longest serving member in the Senate, representing Grand Isle since 1985. Mazza resigned his seat in early April due to health reasons.
Then on June 2nd, Bennington area Democrat Dick Sears died. The 81-year-old had served in the Senate since 1993. His death came as a surprise to many as he had filed paperwork the previous Thursday to run for re-election.
Both men were considered icons of the Vermont Senate and mentored many of its members.
Senator Brian Campion, a Democrat from Bennington. knew Senator Sears for nearly two decades and calls him a dear friend.
“The last week of the session he was remote because he was having some real breathing issues and really struggling. And he spent about a week at Albany Med and during that time I think many of us felt he was getting better,” Campion recalls. “I don’t know there would be a full recovery. But certainly I don’t think any of us were expecting this this quickly.”
Campion says Sears’ legacy goes back to the state’s successful effort to create a civil unions law.
"It really changed the landscape of equal rights for the gay and lesbian community,” Says Campion. “And it was quite incredible. He and his wife, this was before email, they would receive terribly hateful calls and comments from people all around the country. And he kept going. You know since then Dick has always worked very hard to make sure people have equal rights.”
Democrat-Progressive Senate Pro-Tem Phil Baruth says both Sears and Mazza were experts on their committees with Sears the long-serving judiciary chair and Mazza leading the transportation committee.
“They were substantial adversaries if you didn’t agree with them. But on the other hand, under that rugged exterior, both of them had hearts of gold, especially in the case of Dick Sears,” Brauth says. “He was an extremely sentimental man. From Dick Mazza one of the things that I took away was if the debate ever got outside the bounds of civility, he would remind them of their dignity as senators. Dick Sears, the thing that I would take away from him was he was relentless in pursuit of justice.”
Senate Majority Leader Alison Clarkson, a Windsor District Democrat, calls both Mazza and Sears pillars of the Senate.
“Both of them were great go-to people. But Dick Mazza also cared enormously that we work productively together. Dick Sears was more complicated,” says Clarkson.” When I think of Dick I think of Dick really being committed to really rethinking our judicial system particularly how we judge young offenders.”
Middlebury College Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson says both Senators were admired in their districts and within the Statehouse and have taken decades of institutional knowledge with them.
“Pretty much anytime you pay attention to what was happening in the Vermont Legislature over the last 30 or 40 years you could see one or both of them involved,” notes Johnson. “Senator Sears, of course, headed the Judiciary Committee for many, many years. And then Dick Mazza he was the long-time head of the Senate Transportation Committee. If you are in charge of transportation, you’re in charge of shaping the very infrastructure of the state. Not to mention being on the Committee on Committees that selects who gets to be on influential committees. He was right at the center of pretty much anything that was going on in state government for decades. So both of them had an outsized impact.”
Republican Governor Phil Scott called Mazza a dear friend and mentor. When he announced his reelection campaign online this year it included a photo of him and Mazza. Scott called Sears a “true champion” for Bennington County and his death “an incredible loss for Vermont and the Senate.”
