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FILE – In this May 18, 2005, file photo,Sen. Matt Dunne, D-Windsor, is seen on the Senate floor in…

FILE – In this May 18, 2005, file photo,Sen. Matt Dunne, D-Windsor, is seen on the Senate floor in Montpelier, Vt. Would he deliver an Inaugural Address in jeans? Instantly spew out a list of Web sites in response to a question? Matt Dunne’s candidacy for governor of Vermont is raising these and other questions, because in his life outside of politics, he’s an executive with Google.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

(AP)

Internet search giant Google is based in Silicon Valley, yet it runs its community affairs operation out of a former bread factory in an old New England railroad town, hard by the confluence of the White and Connecticut rivers.

Matt Dunne, 40, the man in charge of Google’s efforts to burnish its image in the places where it has offices, keeps up with corporate headquarters through a broadband link from two video screens in the bakery’s former walk-in cooler.

Dunne’s use of that technology — and the broadband Internet connection supporting it — is an example of what he touts as the key to Vermont’s economic future as he campaigns for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor.

“We need to, and I believe have an opportunity to, go from one of the lowest broadband penetration states in the country to the first state that brings fiber-optic high-speed Internet to every home in the state,” Dunne said in an interview. “And that’s an incredible opportunity for us to move from a state that’s not thought of as being a technological center to being a technological center.”

Dunne, who is married and the father of two young children, faces a crowded field of four other Democrats and the incumbent Republican lieutenant governor, Brian Dubie, all vying to replace the retiring Gov. Jim Douglas. Dunne said he hopes his combination of experiences in the public and private sectors will distinguish him. Dunne won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 2006, but lost to Dubie.

Eric Davis, a retired Middlebury College political science professor, said he did not see Dunne’s Google pedigree being a big factor in the campaign unless the candidate can use his Google contacts to help him build a Web site with new and innovative tools that make it stand out against other campaign Web sites.

A rival was less than impressed.

“I don’t seem terribly fazed one way or another by it,” said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Susan Bartlett, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. She noted another candidate, Sen. Peter Shumlin, runs a student travel company.

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