Four House members, and two senators, compete for Vermont’s top legislative jobs
The Vermont State House in Montpelier, where the new House will elect a speaker when the session opens in January. Photo: Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Four House members are seeking the speaker’s job as Vermont lawmakers prepare to convene a new biennium, and two senators are asking colleagues to elect them president pro tempore, with education finance hanging over both races.
WCAX reported Nov. 12 that the candidates for speaker are Rep. Gina Galfetti, R-Barre Town; Rep. Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction; Rep. Charlie Kimbell, D-Woodstock; and Rep. Kate McCann, D-Montpelier. Members will be sworn in in January, the station said, and the House must elect a speaker, who sets the agenda and appoints committee chairs, before it can get to work. The vote is by secret ballot.
An earlier report, published Nov. 6 by NEK News from MyChamplainValley, described three Democratic candidates and said Independent Rep. Laura Sibilia of Dover could also enter the race. That account did not mention Galfetti. It said longtime Speaker Jill Krowinski and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth are not returning, and that the House and Senate leadership votes come as the new session opens Jan. 6.
Kimbell told MyChamplainValley that he and Houghton had agreed the one with more support at a party caucus in early December would stay in the race and the other would withdraw before the formal January election. He said they would likely know by Thanksgiving which of them had more backing. “There’s no easy path for any of us, really thinking about it. Lori is the closest to it,” he said. McCann has not made the same commitment, the report said. When she announced her candidacy, she wrote that Houghton had been mentored by Krowinski and that “Vermont faces deep structural challenges that cannot be solved with more of the same.”
In the Senate, WCAX said Sens. Andrew Perchlik, D-Washington, and Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, are seeking the pro tempore post. Democrats hold 20 of the 30 Senate seats, the station reported. Baruth compared the job to having “the chain and the truck” to haul a rock up a mountain, rather than doing it by hand.
Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican who will again face Democratic supermajorities, told WCAX he is open to working with Democrats but called it essential that lawmakers continue with education reforms. “I’m afraid if we don’t do anything with education transformation, property taxes will go up, or another tax will fill the need,” he said. Baruth warned that if new leaders block finance reforms already in motion, Democrats could again be blamed for tax spikes. Republicans will remain in the minority, with Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, as House minority leader and Sen. Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, as Senate minority leader, WCAX reported.
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