Lt. Gov. Molly Gray was the metaphorical elephant in the virtual Senate Government Operations Committee room Thursday.
In a roundtable discussion about election issues, lawmakers decided to look into clarifying the residency requirement for candidates running for statewide office.
Specifically, the conversation began with a provision that a candidate must have voted in each of the four years prior to running for statewide office.
Gray’s name was not uttered by any of the senators, but it was clear the discussion was a reaction to the controversy around her 2020 run for lieutenant governor.
Gray, a first time candidate, was dogged in the primary and general election by questions about her Vermont residency. Scrutiny was compounded by reports that she had not voted in four election cycles between 2008 and 2018.
“If it hadn’t been an issue in a couple — with a couple candidates in the last six years, I’d feel differently,” Majority Leader Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor.
Clarkson was referring to Gray’s 2020 race and Garrett Graff’s challenge to the four-year residency requirement in 2016. Graff was considering running for lieutenant governor that year and faced questions about whether he had lived in Vermont for the requisite time needed to seek statewide office.
Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden, strongly advocated Thursday for the committee to take up the issue over the objections of the chair, Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham.
“I, at some point, just felt like the one thing I would think we would hope all candidates would do in the two or four years before they run for office is vote in those elections,” Ram said.
It remains to be seen how much play the issue will get in the committee, but it’s hard to see it as anything but a not-so-subtle shot at the current lieutenant governor who presides over the Senate.
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