Remarks Of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy

Thank you all for being here this morning.  This room is special to both Marcelle and me, and not just because as a kid I used to ride my tricycle down these halls.  Having grown up right across the street, Marcelle and I gathered here with our parents, our children Kevin, Alicia and Mark, and my sister Mary and announced my candidacy for the United States Senate.  At the time, I was a 33-year-old, four-term Chittenden County state’s attorney, launching a campaign knowing that Vermont had never sent a Democrat to the United States Senate.

What propelled me was a belief that I understood the needs and values of Vermont and thought it was time for a new generation to address them.  Dublin-born parliamentarian Edmund Burke’s speech to the Electors of Bristol served as my North Star.  He said, “Your representative owes you not his industry only, but his judgment.”  Burke also said that a representative “ought not sacrifice to you” his “conscience.”