‘You Can’t Say No to Bill Doyle’

March 12, 2015

With 57 years at Johnson State and 46 years in the Vermont Senate, Bill Doyle “has lured generations of students into Vermont politics, 30 of whom he estimates have gone on to serve alongside him in the legislature,” Terri Hallenbeck writes in Seven Days on March 11, 2015.

She interviews JSC alums-turned-politicians, including Sen. Anthony Pollina and Sen. Rich Westman. In explaining Doyle’s appeal to Washington County voters, Pollina says, “He’s like a member of the family. They see him as someone they’ve come to know and trust.”

Westman and Pollina also recall how Doyle introduced countless students to Vermont politics and politicians through his political science classes and speakers series.

“It made me much more interested in politics. I basically left Bill Doyle’s class and ran for the legislature,” Westman tells Seven Days.