T. Garry Buckley

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Thomas Garry Buckley

Thomas Garry Buckley (born September 13, 1922 in Albany , New York , † May 23, 2012 in Stowe , Vermont ) was an American politician of the Republican Party . From 1977 to 1979 he was the 72nd Lieutenant Governor of Vermont .

biography

Buckley grew up in Albany with three brothers and a sister. His father ran several cinemas . Buckley attended the Albany Academy for Boys . The family later moved to Bennington , Vermont, and ran the General Stark Theater . He went to Cranwell Preparatory School and then attended Brown University . However, he left the latter to join the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 . There he served as the pilot of a glider , in whose handling he trained other pilots. In 1945, Buckley was still on duty, he married his first wife. After the war, he worked as a real estate agent in Bennington County .

In addition, Buckley was very active in the community life of Bennington since the 1950s, among other things, he was the Village of Old Bennington Trustee and member of the Highway Commission , and was active as an independent also in local politics. 1952 ran as an Independent for a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives , but was defeated by John Hart, who was supported by both Democrats and Republicans. In 1954 Buckley, now a Republican, was elected to the Vermont Senate for the first time and served several legislatures. During this time he was among other things chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee .

In the early 1960s he founded together with A. Luke Crispe, a lawyer from Brattleboro , the Vermont Independent Party , which was directed against the re-election of Republican Governor F. Ray Keyser . Buckley resented Keyser's decision to award the license to operate the Green Mountain Racetrack in Pownal to interested parties from Rhode Island . Buckley, who, together with Crispe, had also been interested in the operating license, would at least have favored it to be awarded to interested parties from Vermont. The appearance of the Vermont Independent Party in the 1962 gubernatorial elections was one of the reasons why Keyser missed re-election and Philip H. Hoff became the first Democrat since 1854 to be elected governor. Because Hoff was also the candidate of the Vermont Independent Party, it was otherwise traditionally possible for Republican voters to vote for Hoff without giving the Democratic Party their vote.

Buckley ran for the election of Lieutenant Governor of Vermont in 1976 and was second behind his Democratic opponent John Alden with 47.6% of the vote. Since none of the candidates achieved the necessary absolute majority, it was up to the parliament, i.e. the Vermont General Assembly , to elect the new lieutenant governor according to the constitution of the state . Buckley won 90 votes in the next election on January 6, 1977, while Alden won 87 votes. The third candidate, John Franco of the Liberty Union , received one vote. Alden later sued unsuccessfully in court against this result. Buckley held the post of lieutenant governor from 1977 to 1979. As a lieutenant governor, he often clashed with his party colleague Richard A. Snelling , who held the post of governor. In 1978, if there was a tie in the Senate , he decided to leave the State Health Department in Burlington and supported a tax break plan for Green Mountain Racetrack , which Snelling later vetoed. In the 1978 Republican primary for running for lieutenant governor, he was defeated by Peter Plympton Smith , who achieved a lead of 15% over Buckley.

1980 Buckley ran unsuccessfully for his nomination as a candidate in the United States Senate elections . Buckley has now retired and moved to Florida. He stayed in Vermont often during the summer months and eventually returned to the state entirely in 2010, where he and his fourth wife settled in Stowe. Buckley had four sons and a daughter.

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personal data
SURNAME Buckley, T. Garry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buckley, Thomas Garry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Albany , New York
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 2012
Place of death Stowe , Vermont