The majority Democrats in the Vermont House are expected to choose their nominee for Speaker this weekend while Republicans picked their nominee on Wednesday. The selections mean the chamber will choose its third female speaker in the body’s history.
On Monday, House Majority leader Sarah Copeland-Hanzas dropped out of the race to become the next Speaker of the Vermont House. She bowed out because Representative Mitzi Johnson, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has more support among Democratic lawmakers.
The South Hero Democrat is now unopposed as the caucus moves to vote for a nominee on Saturday. Johnson says she spent 10 years on the Appropriations Committee and became frustrated over policy priorities and how resources are allocated. “I feel like the budget is the biggest policy document we put out and really needs to align with our vision and our strategic plans for what Vermonters need. And the Speakership is an opportunity right now to take all of this work that we’ve started doing over a few years and bring it into a much more cohesive effort to develop a plan of evaluation and prioritization across state government.”
The Democrats hold a strong majority in the House. While the Republican caucus acknowledges that the numbers are not in their favor, they have nonetheless nominated a candidate for Speaker. Minority Leader Don Turner says they met on Wednesday and chose Essex Representative Linda Myers. “We believe there’s a mandate from the Vermont electorate to move the agenda of Governor-elect Phil Scott. And we’ve seen under the Shumlin administration and the majority led by Shap Smith and Mitzi Johnson in Appropriations spending 95.3 million in new taxes and fees the last two years alone. So Vermont can’t afford more of their leadership and that’s why it’s critical that we put a candidate forward to work with Governor-elect Scott to get his agenda passed.”
Middlebury College Political Science Professor Emeritus Eric Davis says considering the Democratic majority it’s likely Johnson will win the speakership. She will then have to try to move the Democratic agenda forward with a Republican governor and uncertainty over the new federal administration. “A lot will depend on what positions Governor Scott articulates in his state of the state address and his budget address at the beginning of the session. How the legislature decides to respond to it and what priorities of their own they have. There was a briefing for our legislators yesterday. The key topic at that briefing was there’s just a lot of uncertainty now with Donald Trump becoming president, the Republicans having control of both houses of Congress and what that means for federal funding. Vermont depends very heavily on federal funding to support state programs. So until some of that uncertainty from Washington gets resolved there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty in Montpelier.”
The entire House will select the Speaker when it convenes in January.
With both parties offering female nominees, the Vermont House will elect its third woman speaker in its history. Gaye Symington was the last. Her term ended in 2008.
The current speaker, Democratic Representative Shap Smith, was defeated in his primary bid for lieutenant governor.
