Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Meeting hours after the legislature convened for the year, the Democratic caucus unanimously chose Sen. Becca Balint (D-Windham) to serve as majority leader. Earlier Wednesday, the full Senate formally elected Sen. Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden), another of the Senate’s youngest members, as president pro tempore.
Balint, an educator and newspaper columnist from Brattleboro, replaces Sen. Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden) as the chamber’s Democratic leader. Baruth announced in late October that he would step down after four years in the post. Sen. Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) publicly considered seeking it but informed her colleagues in recent days that she would not.
At Wednesday’s caucus meeting, Balint was nominated as part of a “team” with veteran Sen. Mark MacDonald (D-Orange) running for majority whip. The caucus took a single vote, simultaneously electing Balint and MacDonald without dissent.
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He also made news.
The 60-year-old governor publicly revealed for the first time that the death of his father, George, in 2014 came with the help of the state’s end-of-life law that Shumlin had long lobbied for and signed a year earlier.
“I never thought my dad would be able to die with dignity in his home state,” Shumlin told the House and Senate in his farewell address, after noting the passage of the law. His mother Kitty, along with his brother, sister and wife were among those who attended his farewell address.
After the speech, Shumlin confirmed that his father had indeed used a lethal prescription to end his life as the law allows terminally ill Vermonters to do.
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In 2004, Ashe won his first of three races for the Burlington City Council. Four years later, he won his first of five bids for the Vermont Senate. In 2011, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for mayor of Burlington.
Throughout Ashe’s political ascent, Seven Days has addressed Routly’s potential conflict of interest in a variety of ways, depending on Ashe’s role at the time. When he ran for mayor, Routly recused herself from assigning and editing stories related to the race — and prepared herself for the possibility that he would run the city her newspaper covered so closely.
“I had to ask myself: What if Tim wins?” Routly wrote in a March 2012 story about other so-called “power couples” in Vermont.
He didn’t — and she returned to her role managing the Seven Days news team, recusing herself when his name came up and running a one-line disclosure when it appeared in print.
On Wednesday morning, Ashe did win — this time a race for president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate.
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“My main request for all of us is to focus on being curious,” Johnson told members after she became the third woman in state history to hold the speaker’s post. “Take time to understand the problems.”
Johnson won the position — earning her broad power to oversee the 150-member chamber — by a 100-50 vote over Rep. Linda Myers (R-Essex). Johnson replaces Shap Smith, a Morristown Democrat who was speaker for eight years before not seeking reelection.
Myers went into the race knowing she had virtually no chance. Democrats hold a strong majority, with 83 seats. The vote count meant, however, that Myers was unable to win the support of all 53 Republicans, despite indications from her caucus that she would. “That I found disheartening,” she said afterward.
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Ashe, the Democratic/Progressive senator from Chittenden County, was formally elected Senate president pro tempore Wednesday morning in a unanimous and enthusiastic voice vote by the full Senate.
After taking the oath of office from Republican governor-elect Phil Scott (serving his last day as lieutenant governor and presiding officer of the Senate), Ashe ascended to the podium and delivered remarks that displayed stark contrasts between his agenda and Scott’s, and between his leadership style and that of his predecessor, John Campbell, the Windsor Democrat.
His address included an admonition to “thumb-twiddlers” and a warning that his ambitious agenda “isn’t for the faint of heart or the mere dabbler.” It’s doubtful that he had Campbell specifically in mind, but the former pro tem had a notoriously dilatory approach to the job. Ashe promises to be an entirely different sort of leader.
Tags: Tim Ashe , Phil Scott , John Campbell , George Aiken , Howard Dean , Image , Web Only
Associated Press reporter Dave Gram quietly left the newswire’s Montpelier bureau Monday after more than 31 years on the job.
“I’m just feeling very grateful for the career I’ve been allowed to have,” the 60-year-old Montpelier resident said in a brief interview that afternoon. “Grateful especially to the people of the state of Vermont, which is a pretty unique place — and which I think can offer some real value to a country figuring out how to get back to its democratic roots.”
He paused. “And it’s been a lot of fun.”
Tags: Dave Gram , Associated Press , Montpelier bureau , Wilson Ring , Lisa Rathke , Lauren Easton , John Dillon , Ross Sneyd , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
He will argue that Bob Frenier, the Republican candidate from Chelsea who won an Orange County House seat by six votes, should not be sworn in. Frenier, says Chesnut-Tangerman, should not be seated until a legal dispute to the election is settled.
Susan Hatch Davis, a 10-year Progressive representative from the town of Washington, has challenged the vote-counting process after she came up short in her reelection bid.
Hatch Davis cited a rarely used state statute. She petitioned the Secretary of State’s Office, which, by law, triggers an investigation and report by the Attorney General’s Office. A House committee will then consider that report and decide whether to grant Hatch Davis a new recount.
Tags: Jim Condos , Susan Hatch Davis , Bob Frenier , Vermont legislature , Will Senning , recount , Image , Web Only
A pair of Republicans sued outgoing Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin to prevent him from choosing the replacement for Dooley, who stated in September that he would step down at the end of his term in April. On December 23, the court blocked Shumlin from choosing a nominee while it considers the case. The justices don’t have much time to deliberate; Shumlin leaves office Thursday.
Vermont governors pick from a slate of candidates submitted by the Judicial Nominating Board. But Shumlin is in an apparently unprecedented situation in which the retiring judge isn’t stepping down until after governor-elect Phil Scott takes office.
It was standing room only in the State Street courtroom. The case attracted legal buffs, law students and a host of legislators.
Hands clasped over his stomach, leaning back in his black leather chair, Dooley didn’t chime in until halfway through the hearing. Among the questions he posed: What might happen if the justices choose not to rule on the case?
“Could this court, if it contained a justice that was not constitutionally appointed, render a decision?” he asked.
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , Peter Shumlin , Phil Scott , John Dooley , Image , Web Only
The recipients were culled from a group of about 450 people who submitted applications after Shumlin announced in December that he would consider such pardons before he leaves office on Thursday.
Shumlin has advocated for marijuana legalization and in 2013 signed a law that decriminalized possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.
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Monday, January 2, 2017
That person is Supreme Court Justice John Dooley. In September, he declined to seek reappointment to the bench, and his term ends in March. After he announced his pending retirement, outgoing Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin declared his intention to appoint Dooley’s successor.
Since then, House Minority Leader Don Turner (R-Milton) challenged Shumlin’s authority to fill a vacancy that won’t actually exist until after Shumlin leaves office. Turner’s argument rests on the Vermont Constitution’s employment of the word “vacancy,” which would be a dangerous trigger word for a drinking game during Tuesday’s hearing. Appealing to common sense, he asserts that there can’t be a vacancy until the seat is actually, you know, vacant.
For his part, the governor appeals to state law, which seems to grant him authority to replace a member of the judiciary as soon as the vacancy is inevitable. He argues that this is already the case, since the statutory deadline for Dooley to seek reappointment has come and gone.
On December 23 the court ordered Shumlin not to act, pending a hearing on Tuesday — less than two days before Shumlin leaves office. If the court rules in his favor, he is ready to choose one of the six nominees approved by the Judicial Nominating Board. “He’s interviewed all the candidates,” the governor’s spokesman, Scott Coriell, says, “and is prepared to make an appointment.”
When you read the arguments on one side, they seem to make sense. As do the arguments on the other side. At the same time, thinking too closely about this case runs the risk of opening a linguistic black hole beneath your feet.
Tom Little, a former Republican state representative and respected Vermont attorney, notes with tongue slightly in cheek that “Justice Dooley is sitting on the matter. That would seem to be tangible proof that the seat isn’t vacant.”
Well, yes. And then again, no.
Tags: Vermont Supreme Court , John Dooley , Peter Shumlin , Don Turner , Joe Benning , Phil Scott , Dick Sears , Scott Coriell , Judicial Nominating Board , Tom Little , Image , Web Only