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But enlarged House GOP caucus holding their cards close as columnist urges a GOP candidate
By Guy Page
Independent candidate for Speaker of the House Rep. Laura Sibilia (Dover) claims she has the votes to defeat incumbent Democrat Jill Krowinski – if only the newly expanded caucus of Republicans will vote en masse for her.
However, most Republicans are holding their cards close to the chest pending the Wednesday, January 8 election in the House chambers. VDC polled a dozen incumbent GOP lawmakers, and only one responded – saying he hadn’t decided yet. Neither has the GOP House caucus advanced its own candidate, to the consternation of former GOP Chair and current Behind The Lines columnist Rob Roper, who wrote today that “as of this writing no such Republican has stepped up to run for Speaker of the House. The two candidates for that post are the current Speaker, Representative Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) and Representative Laura Sibilia (I-Dover). Neither is an appealing prospect.
‘In Krowinski we have the backroom architect of the horrible policies that have led to the unaffordability crisis we now face on so many fronts, and in Sibilia we have the field commander who shepherded those policies into law.” Instead, Roper urged House Republicans to put forth their own candidate – even if he or she might not win.
The only GOP lawmaker to go on record (yet) about a Speaker vote is Rep. Ashley Bartley (Georgia), who is backing Krowinski.
A weekend press release issued by her campaign manager, former Rep. Lucy Rogers of Waterville, stated that ‘as Vermont’s legislative session nears, twenty-one Democratic, Progressive, and independent lawmakers have pledged support for Rep. Laura Sibilia’s candidacy to become Speaker of the Vermont House.
“Our numbers tell us that if the Republicans join their Democratic, independent, and Progressive colleagues who are voting for change, I’m going to win.”
Krowinski’s speakership became vulnerable after the Democrats lost their supermajority in the November 5 election, due in part to House leadership’s determination to push forward with the unpopular Clean Heat Standard carbon tax scheme and double-digit property taxes to fund public schools through a confusing state education formula.
The House will convene at 10 AM, Wednesday January 8. VDC will cover the Speaker election, which should be the first major order of business. The election can be seen at the House YouTube site.
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Categories: politics
I’m with Rob Roper on this one. I’ll ask the question, when will the VT GOP grow a pair? Why on earth would GOP lawmakers support one Marxist tyrant over another. Time to draw lines and stand on the right side. We all know what the policies that the ruling majority has pushed and WILL be pushing again, stop pretending that they can be collaborated with. Put forth a worthy candidate win or loose, anything else is capitulation.
It’s always better to vote for the underdog; in this case, it will be a hold your nose and vote kinda day- but- perhaps the Repubs can ask for a few “favors” should they put their support behind Sibilia?
Seems like a good time to find out until we have better, stronger choices.
Anne Donahue would be a magnificent, if reluctant, speaker and would have a precedent. During the 80’s Republicans elected a Democrat speaker 3 times. If the Freshman Caucus yearns for the freedom to be out from under the thumb of Democrat leadership this would be a great opportunity to give voice to the voters who loudly rejected the status quo.
Two rats in my yard and not much for another choice. Where were these fine people during the lock down?????
A Tale of Two Commies
One of the big issues, argueably possibly the biggest, that helped the GOP regain seats , is the overwhelming majority of their constituents repeated emphatic desire to repeal, reverse, or modify the GWSA and its spawn, S.5 / Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard. Sibilia has been a champion on the House floor, and behind curtains, a chief political architect of these irresponsible pieces of legislation in her powerful position on the House Energy and Environment Committee. She has consistently violated her own public political philosophy ( e.g. ” it is imperative to address issues in harmony with the majority perspectives of our constituents”.) with her vocal public support, and behind the scenes machinations of these regressive Acts, despite acknowledging their scientific ineffectiveness.
If I were a Republican Representative being asked to support her as Speaker, I would do so only if she reversed her support of this wasteful abomination, and adhered to the desires of her bipartisan constituents and Representatives and earned her approriated label of “Independent”… and I don’t see that happening at anytime. This is a wagon she has hitched her star to…and it should cost her the ambition of Speakership.
Krowinski is an embedded part of the Democratic Chittenden political machine and while a known quantity, has a fractured caucus to mend first before any meaningful legislation can be addressed. Her support of GWSA and Act 18 might be eroded internally, but I would not count on it. While the GOP does not have the votes to put forth a winnable candidate for Speaker, they have not capitalized on the new leverage and identified a vocal personality that clearly articulates their hopefully unified position on GWSA and act 18, School affordability and property taxes. These are the planks that got them elected, and needs to have a face in the challenges for Speakership and Committee selection.
Sibilia and Krowinski are both moonbat peas in a pod, but taking some influence away from the Burlington/Chittenden County delegation is a positive move.
Progressive-liberal-democrat Krowinski vs independent Sibilia for
Speaker of the Vermont House. This is like choosing between the evil of two lessers.
And for those Vermonters who think that an independent would be better than a progressive-liberal (and there are way too many who do), please remember that Vermont’s senior senator, Bernie Sanders, has billed himself as an ‘independent’ for decades, when in reality he’s a progressive-liberal-socialist. How do you like his brand of borscht? Mr. Johnson is correct–Vermont’s GOP needs to grow a pair so we can oust the lackluster stupidity of Vermont’s democrat legislators…