ST. JOHNSBURY — Three lawyers have garnered support from the Caledonia County GOP for the vacant state’s attorney seat here, including the acting top county prosecutor and a former state representative.
County committee members voted Monday to send Gov. Phil Scott three suggestions for replacing former prosecutor Lisa Warren: Windsor County deputy state’s attorney Glenn Barnes, former legislator Janssen Willhoit and interim Caledonia State’s Attorney Jessica Zaleski.
Warren left office last Friday after Scott tapped her in September to join the state’s trial court bench.
The local Republicans chose from six candidates who had pitched themselves to the committee during a meeting last week.
Zaleski won 12 votes, Willhoit garnered 10 and Barnes received nine.
County Republican chair Rick Cochran said Scott could choose any of the three, or none of them at all and ask for more candidates, as he did with the last round of trial court appointments.
Zaleski joined the Caledonia County State’s Attorney Office as a deputy prosecutor last year after leaving Northeast Kingdom Law, the state’s primary public-defense contractor in Caledonia and Orleans counties.
She was appointed interim state’s attorney after Warren’s selection for a judgeship.
Willhoit, who last year decided not to run for re-election to the Vermont House, heads a private defense practice in St. Johnsbury. He ran unsuccessfully in 2018 for Vermont Attorney General on a platform of criminal justice reform — based in part on his experience in a Kentucky prison after being convicted in 2004 for bilking financial clients out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Barnes — who billed himself as “probably the least known candidate here” — has been a deputy state’s attorney in Windsor County for seven years.
During last week’s meeting, each of the trio talked about their vision for the prosecutor’s office and homed in on early intervention and addiction-related crime.
“It’s in the venue of juvenile law that we can institute change early on, instead of seeing those kids later on as adults in criminal court,” Zaleski said then.
Barnes said part of a prosecutor’s job is knowing when someone needs support. Willhoit spoke of the need to prevent those with “troubled backgrounds from entering a life of crime.”
Monday’s meeting was not without hiccups. Committee members spent about 30 minutes debating how, exactly, they’d go about voting.
Some members wanted ranked-choice voting. Others thought they each should choose only one candidate.
Before the first meeting, the governor’s office had asked the committee for a list of no more than three people.
But then the office asked for at least three and no more than five candidates, Cochran said. That spurred more debate: How many suggestions should be sent?
The discussion ran for so long, and drew so many differing opinions, that some attendees began to grumble.
“We’re sending candidates to the governor, for God’s sake,” said one woman. Another whispered: “This is ridiculous.”
And Amy Davis, another former Northeast Kingdom Law attorney, told the committee she heard from a state’s attorney from outside the county that Scott had already made his decision.
She said the state’s attorney, who she did not name, told her that the governor’s office had surveyed her support for the candidate. She didn’t name the candidate, either.
State Sen. Joe Benning, also a lawyer, questioned where Davis had heard that information, saying he hadn’t been asked for his opinion.
The committee quickly moved on without addressing Davis’ point further.
The governor’s spokesperson, Rebecca Kelley, denied any outreach efforts from the governor’s office ahead of the vote.
“What you have heard is not correct and we’ve relayed that to the Committee as well,” she said in an email. “The Governor has always and will continue to follow the standard process in selecting from among the committees’ recommendations.”
