[T]he Senate is poised to consider a bill that would prevent Vermont Senate districts from sending more than three representatives to the Statehouse.
If enacted, the proposal would only have an immediate impact on Chittenden County, which sends six senators to the state Legislature and would have to be broken into at least two districts.
Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P Chittenden, who is sponsoring the bill, said he wants to make the relationship between Chittenden County senators and their constituents closer.
Because six senators are currently representing the entirety of Chittenden County, the state’s most populous district, Ashe said county residents “do not have the same relationship to their elected members of the Senate that I think they ought to.”
“I think it should be a much closer relationship. I think that the elections would be stronger if there were fewer candidates … I think debates would be livelier,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, another sponsor of the legislation, said splitting up the Chittenden County district would improve the district’s elections, where voters often have to choose between more than 15 different candidates at once.
“The trouble with that current system is that when those senators run for office they go into a forum that lasts an hour and a half and there’s 15 of them running for these six positions,” Benning said.
“That is not a place where people can actually learn and understand who their senators are going to be. So dividing it up and getting more local control over that conversation, I think is important,” he added.
Sen. Chris Pearson D/P Chittenden, said he was also on board with the proposal, calling the current system “unworkable.”
“It’s not great for legislators, it’s not great for citizens,” he said. “I’ve got 130,000 constituents, it’s crazy. They rightly would like a reply to their outreach to me.”
The proposal to limit the size of the state’s Senate districts comes as Vermont considers revisiting the redistricting process in 2021, after the next U.S. Census is conducted in 2020.
With a population that has grown since 2010, Ashe said it’s possible that Chittenden County will soon need a seventh senator representing it in the Statehouse.
Chittenden County is a stronghold for Vermont Democrats and Progressives, and in the Senate lawmakers who run under both banners. Republicans have long criticized the district for having outsize influence in the Senate.
Eric Davis, emeritus professor of political science at Middlebury College, said if the proposal passed and Chittenden County was split up into two or three districts, it may make it easier for Republicans to gain influence.
“I think bottom line politically, Republicans might be able to win one seat in a district that’s mainly suburban focused,” he said.
Kit Norton contributed reporting.
