By Guy Page
The much-discussed debate between incumbent House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) and challenger Rep. Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) is off.
At a State House press conference yesterday, Krowinski was asked by VDC if she would participate in a planned Dec. 14 debate in Randolph, and if not that date, would another day suffice.
In response, Krowinski said she will not be participating in a public debate, instead preferring to talk with individual members.
The debate was the brainchild of Rep. Jay Hooper (D-Randolph), an independent-minded lawmaker who has been critical of how the House was run last year and who endorsed, and was endorsed by, Gov. Phil Scott.
He announced he would organize the debate shortly after Sibilia, who is currently vice-chair of the House Committee on Environment and Energy, announced she would seek the Speakership in the wake of the Democrats’ loss of a supermajority on Election Day, Nov. 5.
Although the proposed debate had no lack of local sponsors (a chamber of commerce) and impartial locale (the Chandler venue in Randolph), it didn’t have the buy-in of both candidates. Sibilia indicated her willingness, but Krowinski never committed – leaving Sibilia and the organizers the option of the ‘debate with an empty chair.’
VDC asked Sibilia for comment this AM and will publish her response when received. Hooper offered these comments yesterday:
I think when politicians decline clear and well notified invitations to open forum, it typically means they probably really are due to participate in a debate like the one at Chandler. If I were a [House Speaker] candidate reviewing this level of attention, to my thinking, simply because my perspective is considered universally important, I would not hesitate to embrace the public pressure to come out and talk more about how if nothing changes, your property taxes will spike again by about 6 percent.
“I think it is unreasonable to be unclear for over two weeks, about refusal to participate in a debate with a date/time established, and then expect the hosting institutions to simply say ‘ok, no big deal that you never responded directly, we’ll just let you off the hook as to our request for your participation in a transparent and public display of your reasoning for why you think you should be the Speaker of the House’ …. though that person is by far the most powerful politician in Vermont.”
