During a radio interview last week, Burlington Republican Party chair Kolby LaMarche set his sights on the leaders of his own party.
Echoing points he’d made in a recent op-ed, the 19-year-old party chair argued that former President Donald Trump had damaged the GOP, and he called on Vermont Republican Party chair Deb Billado to step down from her post. Like others in the state party, LaMarche had criticized Billado for failing to condemn Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 riots in Washington, D.C., which Trump has been accused of inciting.
Following LaMarche’s appearance on WVMT’s morning show, three members of the Burlington Republican Party committee called on LaMarche to step down. He refused, but his detractors are now seeking a meeting to force his ouster.
The infighting within the local party reflects broader divisions within the state GOP — and Republican committees throughout the country. Since last month’s riots in Washington, party members and leaders have been battling over whether to defend the former president or distance themselves from him.
In Vermont, the Trump faithful have been targeting the state’s moderate Republican governor, Phil Scott, arguing that he should leave the party. Centrists, meanwhile, have said it’s Billado who should go.
Gus Klein is among the Queen City Republicans seeking to remove LaMarche from the local party’s leadership. In an email to LaMarche, Klein wrote that the chair had the right to express his own opinion, but he did not “have the right to speak on my or anyone else’s behalf, unless it has been clearly vetted through everyone being represented within the Burlington party.”
Klein, who declined an interview request, added, “I for one do not have the same beliefs that you have.”
Divisions within the Vermont Republican Party are nothing new. In recent years, Trump’s supporters and opponents have frequently fought over the direction of the party.
‘A Vermont Trump Republican Party?’
But in the weeks since the riots, those divisions have grown deeper.
Last week, Ron Lawrence, chair of the Essex Republicans, launched an online petition calling on Scott to leave the GOP. It has since been signed by more than 1,600 people.
The petition focuses on remarks Scott made during a Jan. 15 press conference when he was asked whether he was reconsidering his affiliation with the party. At the time, Scott said the GOP had to decide “whether indeed this is a party of Trump … if they’re going to continue with some of what I perceive as white supremacy dominating, racial inequity and so forth, then we’ll all have to make some decisions.”
The petition has been blasted by some elected Republicans. Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, called it “completely ridiculous,” noting that Scott had fought against tax and fee increases, led the state through the pandemic and was reelected last year with 70% of the vote.
“This is really the struggle that’s really going on here,” Beck said. “Are we going to have a Vermont Republican Party? Or are we going to have a Vermont Trump Republican Party?”
Last month, Beck and other House Republicans sent Billado a letter calling on her to resign. The letter came after the state Republican Party issued a statement that condemned the violence at the Capitol but didn’t criticize Trump for inciting the riots. Scott, by contrast, had reacted to the riots by calling on Trump to resign.
Billado did not respond to requests for comment.
Beck said he felt the need to send the letter because top party members could not “admit that the president lost an election and can’t admit publicly that he had a role in an insurrection.”
‘Policies and principles’
Paul Dame, the Vermont Republican Party’s political director, said he doesn’t support either Beck’s call for Billado to step down, or the petition for the governor to leave the party.
According to Dame, Billado’s statement on the riots was an attempt to find a “middle ground.” While some party members thought it didn’t go far enough in criticizing Trump, Dame said, others thought it was an “overreaction.”
Dame said 16 Republican members of the Vermont House had voted against a resolution last month calling on the president to resign after the violence in Washington.
“The job of the state chair is to find those things that 100% of our legislators can agree on, or 90%, and amplify those rather than intentionally creating greater divisions,” Dame said.
“My question for [Beck] would be: Does he think the other 16 Republicans that voted differently than him on the resolution should quit?” Dame asked. “I mean, that’s ridiculous.”
Dame said he thought the party would be more successful if it focused more on “policies and principles” and less on personalities.
“Personalities are always going to be divisive. Within our party, we have people who love Trump and who hate Trump. And then we have people who love Phil Scott and then some people who hate Phil Scott,” he said.
In Dame’s view, most Vermont Republicans want the same things: “smaller, smarter government, more responsive government, local control, decentralization.” He added, “A lot of things that, frankly, Phil Scott is supporting to the degree that he can with a Democratic near-supermajority.”
‘Escape hatch’
Dame and other Republicans said the disagreements within the state GOP would likely play out this fall when the party goes through reorganization — the process of electing party leaders at the municipal, county and state level every other year.
Sen. Corey Parent, R-Franklin, is among those who hope the state party will replace Billado. He called this fall’s party elections an “escape hatch.”
“I think it’s incumbent on those who think the party needs to go in a new direction to make sure there’s support,” Parent said. “There’s a coalition of folks going to those meetings in the fall who want to see a new direction for the state party.”
Although LaMarche is facing calls to step down, he says he plans to serve out his term, which ends in September.
He called the divisions within the state’s GOP a “wide-open wound,” and said he wanted to work with Republicans across the political spectrum to help the party move forward.
“But we have to stop listening to the national toxicity,” LaMarche said. “And we need to focus on Vermont.”
