So despite the firmware upgrade I still see the state changed to BACKUP in the keepalived.conf file on the "real" master node:
vrrp_instance vyatta-eth2.14-14 {
state BACKUP
interface eth2.14
virtual_router_id 14
priority 150
advert_int 1
virtual_ipaddress {
10.114.156.249/24
}
...
etc.,etc..