Vermont Republicans picked up six seats in the Vermont Senate on November 5th, changing the partisan makeup of the chamber from 23-7 to 17-13, the highest percentage the VTGOP has had in over a quarter century. The Republicans succeeded in winning three open seat races and knocking off three Democrat incumbents, two of whom were infamous for their support of radical climate policies and the third largely because she unapologetically supported a bill to double legislators’ salaries – something struggling taxpayers not surprisingly frowned upon.
An unprecedented rise in property taxes certainly played a major role in all of the VTGOP pickups, which also included 18 (potentially twenty pending a revote and a recount) in the House, the highest single season pickup tally for any VT party in a very long time. Nationally, Republicans picked up around fifty legislative seats total (out of 5806 elections), and roughly half of all of them came in Vermont. So, message from Vermont voters to Vermont Democrats: please stop literally everything you are doing. Response from Democrat Senate Caucus to voters based on their recent leadership picks, yeah, go (keeping it clean) pound sand!
The remaining and new members of the Democrat Senate Caucus decided that the best way to respond to their recent shellacking was to re-elect Philip Baruth (D/P, Chittenden) as Senate President Pro Tem (aka Top Dog/Big Cheese). This is the same Baruth whose “leadership” included an authoritarian rant last March following Town Meeting Week telling his colleagues, “You will not receive kudos for your work [on their taxing and spending schemes], you will receive sharp criticism, paid advertising talking about how you’re going to cost Vermonters money that they don’t have.” But, despite the clearly articulated lack of constituent support for this agenda, Baruth instructed, “We are going forward with these bills!” And they did! It did not go well.
But echoing that exact same sentiment eight months and one election later, Baruth laid down the law in his intra-caucus re-election victory speech, “Every bill that comes to you, you may have reasons why you might not want to vote for it. But we’re in a situation where the good of the caucus and the bills that you want to pass out of your committee are going to need you to be a little more amenable to other people’s bills. You’re going to have to stretch sometimes.” In other words, vote for what I tell you to, and pay no attention to your constituents, your conscience, or common sense.
This… is… why… your… party… LOST! But the caucus decided in its infinite tone-deafness to reward this arrogant, elitist jerk with a return to their top leadership post.
It doesn’t end there. Remember when I referenced one of the three ousted incumbents’ support for doubling legislative salaries and benefits? Well, the new Senate Majority Whip is the leading proponent of that policy, Becca White (D-Windsor). This millennial with the maturity level of an eight-year-old and the personality of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’s Veruca Salt (“I want an Oompa Loompa NOW!”) was caught on camera having a sarcastic hissy fit because her successful efforts to raise taxes on the folks who elected her at crushing rates would not be rewarded with a massive pay raise for herself.
As for the new Majority Leader, Senator Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor) was ousted in favor of Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden Southeast). While ousting Clarkson, who is like the flamboyant, life-of-the-party Aunt who shows up at Thanksgiving plastered – entertaining and affable but undenyably bat crazy – makes some sense…. But Ram Hinsdale?
This is the woman who currently chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs (emphasis in this context on the word Housing), who made headlines this past September with, “Hinsdale Properties is demanding $500,000 to allow an apartment complex project on Willison Road to go forward (Seven Days, 9/18/24).”
If Baruth and White represent the worst kind of ideologically, out of touch radicals who see politics as a means to wield power over their constituents rather than represent them, Ram Hinsdale represents the worst kind of self-serving corruption. With Vermonters facing a housing availability and affordability crisis, and a developer willing to invest in building 32 units of housing in Williston, the family business of the Senate Housing Committee holds up that project until they can wet their beak for a cool half million. That just doesn’t pass the ethical smell test. This is the person writing state laws regulating housing development? For whose benefit one must ask.
According to VT Digger, “Ram Hinsdale tried to change that tradition [that caucus leaders do not chair committees] on Saturday. In an unusual move, senators voted on a piece of internal guidance that would have allowed caucus leaders [specifically her] to serve as committee chairs, as well. Ram Hinsdale urged her colleagues to vote yes.” Yeah, I’ll bet she did!
According to her bio on the state website, “When not in the legislature, Kesha teaches Structural Inequality and Environmental Justice at Vermont Law & Graduate School. She has also served as co-chair of the Vermont Attorney General’s Immigration Task Force and as a member of the boards of Emerge Vermont, the Main Street Alliance of Vermont, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Regenerative Food Network, and the Vermont Natural Resources Council.” Is this the resume of someone you trust will lead her caucus to meaningful property tax reform, take a tough stance on rising crime, and solve the housing cost/availability crisis? That is, need I say it, a rhetorical question.
Well, that’s the Democrats in the Senate. Will those in the House do any better? They are currently in a leadership fight between the current Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) and Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) – a real reverse Sophie’s Choice for sure. Cant’ we get rid of both of them? I’ll analyze that race in my next column. Stay tuned!
