By Guy Page
Gov. Phil Scott will appoint the next senator from Orleans County from among three candidates: two sitting House representatives, and a Newport daily newspaper publisher.
The seat became vacant when first-term Sen. Sam Douglass resigned October 20 under pressure from Scott and GOP leaders after controversial statements he made online surfaced in a national news report. Under the Vermont Constitution, the governor may appoint a replacement to complete an unfinished term until the next scheduled general election. Scott is likely to appoint a replacement weeks ahead of when the Legislature reconvenes for the 2025-26 biennium on January 7.
According to a Dec. 4 news report authored by Editor Dana Gray of the Caledonian-Record, the daily newspaper published in St. Johnsbury, the three candidates recommended by the Orleans County GOP Committee to replace Douglass are Rep. Mark Higley (R-Lowell), Rep. John Kascenka (R- ), Rep. Mike Marcotte (R-Coventry) and Newport Daily Express publisher Tabitha Armstrong, who ran for the Legislature in 2020 and 2022.
Marcotte, longtime chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, reportedly has since dropped out of the race. According to the Caledonian-Record, the 11-term House member will not seek re-election next fall.
Higley is a Brattleboro native who settled in his current community in 1990. He attended Guilford Central School and Brattleboro Union High School before joining the U.S. Navy Seabees as a builder. After his service, he launched his own general contracting business in 1978 and married his wife two years later. The couple raised four children—two daughters and two sons.
His public service includes seats on the Solid Waste Committee and Agricultural Advisory Committee, as well as two one-year terms on the Brattleboro Selectboard in 1986 and 1987. He has served as a lister in Lowell since 1994, and spent five winters working for the town, operating a road plow and grader.
Higley is active in agricultural organizations including the Vermont Beef Producers Association, the Vermont Farm Bureau, and the Vermont Sugar Makers Association. He has served in the Vermont House since 2009.
Kascenska holds the House seat for the Essex-Caledonia seat, representing his Caledonia County town of Burke and nine other towns, all in Essex County. At first glance, Kascenska might seem to have the wrong address for the Orleans County seat, but redistricting added the town of Burke to an otherwise all-Orleans County senate district.
Kascenska was born in Torrington, Connecticut. His family relocated to Vermont in 1969, and he has made his home in the Northeast Kingdom since 1992. He is an alumnus of Poultney High School and Lyndon State College, and later earned graduate degrees from Virginia Tech and North Carolina State University.
Kascenska spent 32 years working in higher education, including 25 years within the Vermont State Colleges System as both a faculty member and academic dean. His community involvement includes serving as President of the Burke Area Chamber of Commerce, Burke Justice of the Peace, President of Lyndon Rescue, Inc., Trustee and Board Chair at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, honorary member of the Vermont State University–Lyndon Alumni Council, and a member of the Northeast Kingdom Broadband committee.
He also founded and operates an outdoor recreation company in Vermont that offers nationally recognized training programs in urban and wilderness medicine. In addition, he teaches avalanche safety and rescue courses at Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.
Kascenska previously served in the Vermont House of Representatives, sitting on the Commerce and Economic Development Committee and the Vermont National Guard and Military Affairs Caucus. He served in 2022 and returned to the House beginning in 2025.
After years as an editor and writer at the Newport Daily Express, and working elsewhere in digital marketing, Armstrong was promoted to General Manager in 2022. If appointed, she would join NEK radio station Russ Ingalls as another Northeast Kingdom senator with a professional media background. A former Newport Daily Express publisher, Ken Wells, was elected to the House of Representatives in 2024.