Democratic leaders in the Vermont House have created a committee to draft and oversee guidelines about party expectations after a member leaked login information for a recent campaign strategy Zoom meeting.
In an April 14 email sent to party members, House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said a lawmaker “leaked private emails” about the March 31 meeting, and called the move “a breach of trust.”
With concern about the leak in the caucus — and the fact that no one has taken responsibility for it — Krowinski said Democrats needed a new strategy for working together as a “political team.”
She said the new “Norms and Values Committee,” which is staffed by eight lawmakers, will outline “the benefits” of being a member of the Democratic Party and “the clear expectations and responsibilities that members must uphold in return.”
Krowinski wrote that the committee will not seek to influence Democrats’ opinions on policy matters.
“To be clear, membership in the House Democratic Caucus has nothing to do with how you vote on any given issue, but rather establishes shared and respectful guidelines for how we operate as a political and strategic team,” the email says.
In an interview Tuesday, Krowinski said that party leaders were also forming the committee in response to Rep. Cynthia Browning’s decision last month to call a quorum of 76 lawmakers to Montpelier to vote on Covid-19 measures, despite public health concerns.
In response, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson stripped Browning of her seat on the Ways and Means Committee.
Browning, D-Arlington, called the quorum because she had an issue with a proposed rule change that would allow the House to hold votes remotely, and wanted Johnson to drop the measure.
Krowinski said Browning’s actions “put the health of members, staff and their communities at risk.”
“Right now we need to all be working together with the same shared goal, as a team, to do what’s best for our state during this pandemic,” Krowinski said.
Krowinski said the committee is currently discussing what the new party guidelines will look like and whether there will be consequences for violating them.
Browning criticized Democratic leaders for selecting members of the new committee without reaching out to all members of the party.
“They didn’t mention it, and they created the committees and assigned members to the committees without having any votes or caucus-wide consultations,” Browning said.
Browning added that she was not behind the leak that prompted the new committee.
Seven Days reported on the breached Zoom meeting last week. Kevin Hoyt, former Republican House candidate in Bennington who is now running for governor, accessed the meeting and posted screenshots of it on his Facebook page.
He criticized the lawmakers for meeting “in secrecy” and argued that the Zoom gathering violated Vermont’s open meeting law.
Democrats maintained that the meeting was lawful because legislators were discussing the 2020 elections and campaign strategy, not legislation or policy.
Hoyt declined to say who gave him the Zoom meeting information and told Seven Days that he couldn’t remember who it was. He said he found a note on his car with the “the codewords and passwords” and a “fake name.”
Rep. Randall Szott, D-Barnard, another Democrat who has bucked party leaders — most notably with his vote against a Democratic effort to override Gov. Phil Scott’s paid family leave veto — raised concerns about the new committee.
Szott worries that the committee “may stifle free and fair debate on issues” and use it to “set parameters on the nature of debate.”
“I’m just concerned that they’re going to unnecessarily hem in dissent,” Szott said.
Krowinski reiterated that the committee has nothing to do with how people vote, but how they treat each other as members of the caucus.
“This is very laser focused on what it means to be a member of this caucus and how we trust one another,” she said.
