{news} Courant profile of Harold Burbank

[David Bedell]

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-5green1027.artoct27,0,7933462.story

5TH DISTRICT
5th District Green Party Candidate Wages Campaign Of Principle

By DANIELA ALTIMARI
The Hartford Courant
October 27, 2008

CANTON - He was a teenager working at a golf course in his hometown of
Kennebunkport, Maine, when a well-heeled patron came in with a question: Who
among all of these caddies could run a lawn mower without running over their
feet?

Harold H. Burbank II could, and thus began his long and complicated
relationship with the Bush family.

Burbank worked as a groundskeeper at Walker's Point, the Bush family's
compound on the Maine coast, all through high school. He forged a connection
with George H.W. Bush that continues in the form of sporadic correspondence
about world affairs.

And now he's running for Congress on a Green Party platform that calls for
the impeachment of Bush's son.

This year, for the first time, the Green Party of Connecticut is fielding a
full slate of congressional candidates: Stephen Fournier in the 1st
Congressional District, Scott Deshefy in the 2nd, Ralph Ferrucci in the 3rd
and Richard Duffee in the 4th.

Burbank, 51, a lawyer from Canton, is seeking to oust 5th District Rep.
Christopher Murphy. Burbank voted for the freshman Democrat two years ago.
But a 2007 forum at New Britain High School changed Burbank's mind.

The subject was Iraq, and Burbank wanted to know why Murphy didn't support
an effort by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, to impeach President George W.
Bush.

"I went down and took the microphone, and I said, 'Mr. Murphy, you and I
seem to agree that Mr. Bush has lied to the American people regarding
weapons of mass destruction,'" Burbank recalled. "Why are you not joining
your colleagues who are [drafting] articles of impeachment?"

Murphy "didn't offer a direct answer," Burbank said. (In an interview
Friday, Murphy said he appreciates Burbank's activism but believes that an
impeachment attempt would "only produce more partisan rancor and gridlock.")

To Burbank, there is little difference between Republicans and Democrats.
"They both depend on the same sources of funding," he said.

While Murphy and 5th District GOP candidate David Cappiello have each raised
hundreds of thousands of dollars, Burbank's campaign treasury is pretty much
nonexistent. But that's OK. "I was taught at a very young age to be
independent and self-reliant," he said.

Burbank grew up in Maine; his mother came from a family of Wall Street
lawyers who summered in Camden, and his father's relatives were
working-class farmers and loggers. He holds a master's degree in political
science from the University of Wisconsin and a law degree from the Franklin
Pierce Law Center.

Tonight, Burbank and independent candidate Thomas Winn will have a chance to
pitch their messages directly to the voters in a debate at 6 p.m. at
Farmington High School sponsored by the Farmington Chamber of Commerce. This
is the first - and only - debate featuring all 5th District candidates.

Burbank has no illusions about the magnitude of the task ahead. But, he
added, "somebody has to make these statements."

For more coverage of Connecticut's congressional races, visit
http://courant.com/ctraces


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