Jim Douglas
James (Jim) Douglas (born June 21, 1952) is the elected governor of the state of Vermont (2003).
Douglas was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1972 he graduated with an A.B. from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, where he had been active in the Young Republicans. That November, he was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives, becoming the House Majority Leader during his third term, at the age of twenty-five. He retired from the State Legislature in 1979, afterwards serving as the top aide to Governor Richard A. Snelling. Douglas was elected Secretary of State in 1980, a post which he held until 1992. That year he sought election to the United States Senate, but was defeated by Democratic incumbent Sen. Patrick Leahy. In 1994, he was elected State Treasurer, after receiving the endorsement of both major parties. In the 2002 gubernatorial election, Douglas narrowly defeated his Democrat challenger Doug Racine by a 45-42% margin. Since neither of the candidates received more than 50% of the vote, the race was ultimately decided by the Republican-controlled State Legislature. The first Republican in Vermont to win the gubernatorial election in more than a decade, Douglas succeeded five-term Governor Howard Dean, who subsequently launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.