Chittenden County State鈥檚 Attorney T.J. Donovan won鈥檛 be asking voters for a promotion this year, he said.
After a hard-fought primary campaign in 2012 in which he came within 1,000 votes of beating sitting Attorney General Bill Sorrell, Donovan said he isn鈥檛 seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 2014.
鈥淚t was a decision that was obviously difficult given how close we came last time,鈥� Donovan said.
A number of factors, both personal and professional, played into his decision not to challenge Sorrell for a second time, he said. Sorrell announced his plans to run for reelection last year.
鈥淢ost likely I鈥檓 going to run for [reelection for] state鈥檚 attorney,鈥� Donovan said, adding that he hasn鈥檛 made the decision yet.
Whatever his job title is, Donovan said he wants to play a role in Gov. Peter Shumlin鈥檚 push to integrate public health and public safety in battling what he called an 鈥渆pidemic鈥� of opiate addiction. Shumlin named Donovan in his State of the State speech about the problem; Donovan鈥檚 Rapid Intervention Community Court for non-violent drug-related offenses has served as a national model for reducing recidivism and rehabilitating offenders.
鈥淚 think what the governor鈥檚 talking about is a major issue,鈥� Donovan said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to require a lot of work, and if I can play a small part in that, I鈥檇 be happy to.鈥�
While Donovan鈥檚 political future is far from certain 鈥� he hasn鈥檛 decided for sure if he鈥檒l even seek to be on the ballot this year 鈥� he knows he wants to be involved in refining and spreading the Rapid Intervention Community Court model across the state.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to be involved in this discussion in whatever capacity I may be in at the time,鈥� Donovan said.
