Longtime activist, perennial candidate Peter Diamondstone dies at 82

Longtime Vermont political activist and perennial candidate Peter Diamondstone died Wednesday at his home in Dummerston surrounded by his family. Diamondstone was 82 years old.

The Brattleboro-area politician founded Vermont's Liberty Union Party in 1970 with like-minded activists who wanted to pull the Democratic Party to the left and stop the Vietnam War.

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Diamondstone's wife, Doris Lake, said the Liberty Union platform was a good example of what her husband hoped for, a "world where people did more sharing and less killing."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who began his political career as a member of the Liberty Union Party, said he first met Diamondstone more than 45 years ago, but hasn't had any "real contact" with Diamondstone for many years. Sanders spoke of the influence Diamondstone had on Vermont's political scene. 

"Peter was a very independent thinker, unafraid to express his (often controversial) point of view on any subject," Sanders said in a statement Thursday. "As a result, he forced people to examine and defend their own positions. No small thing. In his own way, Peter played an important role in Vermont politics for many decades."

Sanders captured 6.1 percent of the vote for governor in 1976 as a Liberty Union candidate, but left the party the following year.

Diamondstone carried on, representing the Liberty Union Party by running against or debating almost every major Vermont politician who made a statewide bid over the past 40 years. Last November marked the first time in nearly four decades that he did not seek elected office.

Gov. Phil Scott issued a statement Thursday, offering his condolences to the Diamondstone family.

"He was very committed," Scott said. "I remember watching him on past debates through the years, before I was even interested in politics. I'm always impressed by those who continued to have a message that they really believe in."

Scott said he didn't know Diamondstone well, but believes he was committed to a "better Vermont," and said Diamondstone's persistence was "exemplary."

Former Democratic Gov. Madeleine Kunin said Diamondstone added to Vermont's reputation as a nontraditional state with nontraditional campaigns. She characterized her relationship with Diamondstone during her tenure as governor, from 1985 to 1991, as "tolerant."

"We never went head to head on anything. He was just out there in his own sphere. He was never mean spirited. There were no filters when he spoke. He said what he thought," Kunin told the Burlington Free Press on Thursday night.

"He was a unique character," she added. "He ran for office again and again knowing he would never get elected. He had radical left views. But he believed in speaking out. He believed strongly in maybe not joining the conversation but adding to the conversation. He had an indomitable spirit and passion."

Diamondstone was Bronx native, and grew up on Long Island. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. He worked for the presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy before moving to Vermont in 1968 with four young children, two cats and a St. Bernard dog, Lake said. 

"I think Peter was exhausted from working for Eugene McCarthy," she said. "I think the exhaustion made Peter feel like he wanted to go to Vermont and take some time to write a book."

The family landed in West Brattleboro, and Diamondstone took a job with Vermont Legal Aid. Lake said her husband had a problematic relationship with the organization, where he was fired twice. The first time, she said, was precipitated by a speech Diamondstone gave advocating for the poor, which the director of Vermont Legal Aid felt included some "politically incorrect" statements.

"So he was fired," Lake said.

She said Diamondstone was rehired after local people gathered petitions in his support. But then he was fired again after he took out an advertisement in the Brattleboro Reformer criticizing a decision by the state to close all government offices in recognition of the United States landing a man on the moon, his family said.

The advertisement said the Legal Aid office would remain open and would not celebrate the expenditure of tax money on moon shots while there were still people without food, clothing and shelter.

"He spent his life fighting for people's rights," said Diamondstone's son, Aaron. "He fought really hard for other people."

Lake said she and her husband worked a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet, while Diamondstone continued to be involved in politics.

"I sat on the floor next to my dad during numerous television interviews," said Diamondstone's daughter, Paula. "It was an adventure. I preferred it to school."

Paula Diamondstone said in the last few weeks of his life, her father was distraught by the current political climate.

"He was feeling bad," she said. "He didn't feel like he had done what he was meant to do. He'd get really teary eyed and upset he didn't make the world a better place."

Kunin, the former Democratic governor, said Diamond's lasting legacy was in advancing the conversation in Vermont.

"He made some people think in different ways, which was a good thing," she said. "He did make me stop and think, even if I did disagree with him."

Diamondstone struggled with his health for the past four years, ever since he received a pacemaker, Paula Diamondstone said.

Paula Diamondstone said at the beginning of July it was hard for her father to get out of chair and be mobile.

"It seemed like he decided he wanted to die," she said. "He stopped eating and drinking just enough to wet his whistle."

Diamondstone ended up in the emergency department at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital the last Thursday of July, Paula Diamondstone said, but on the following Sunday said he wanted to go home where he was cared for by his family.

"We're all very close," Paula Diamondstone said. "It's just the way it's always been."

Paula Diamondstone said Thursday her husband and her sister's husband were building a pine box for her father to be buried in on Saturday morning in a cemetery on Mather Road in West Brattleboro.

After the burial, Paula Diamondstone said the family would host a reception at the "old homestead" in West Brattleboro, 787 Western Ave., at 11 a.m. There is only an empty lot and a cellar hole now where the family house burned down in 2012.

"My two brothers are headed over to cut the grass and put up a tent," Paula Diamondstone said. "We'll make it open to whomever would like to come."

Diamondstone is survived by his wife, four children, Aaron, Jessy, Ian and Paula, 14 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Contributing: Adam Silverman of the Free Press. Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com.