Dandeneau led the Democrats’ campaign to recruit candidates for the Vermont House in 2018, the year the party picked up 12 seats to clinch a veto-proof supermajority with Progressives in the chamber.
The final days of the legislative session feel sort of like the final days of a busy school year. The desks get messier, covered in papers flagged with sticky notes. There’s cramming. Retiring senators scratch their names into their desks before heading out.
Five months ago, lawmakers filed into the Statehouse donning masks, then quickly returned to hybrid legislating. A lot has changed since then.
Rep. Janet Ancel has been a fixture in Montpelier for decades. She served as then-Gov. Howard Dean’s legal counsel from 1993 to 2000, and his tax commissioner from 2000 to 2002.
If enacted into law, the final compromise between the two chambers would send families $1,000 per child 5 or under. Households making $125,000 or less would be eligible for the full credit. It would impact an estimated 33,000 children in the state.
Things are quickly ending up on the cutting room floor as lawmakers hustle to adjourn.
The Burlington Progressive was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Vermont House in 2006, and has been on the ballot every two years since. Only one incumbent in the district running for re-election.
House lawmakers narrowly failed to override Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes on two bills: A Burlington charter change that would ban no-cause evictions, and the clean heat standard. Each failed by just one vote — and seemed to blindside legislative leadership.
The Republican governor and the Democratic-controlled Legislature are still quite far apart on key line items, including housing, economic development and taxes.
Last fall, Vermont school staff asked lawmakers to hold off on passing new education laws in the upcoming legislative session. But roughly seven months later, as the legislative session nears its end, lawmakers’ plates have been full when it comes to education bills.
The vote was 148-0. The Senate voted to override the governor’s veto — also unanimously — on Wednesday. This is the first time a veto has been unanimously overridden in both chambers in state history, according to the House speaker’s office.
Pieciak is the first to announce his candidacy for the post. Beth Pearce, who has served as treasurer since 2011, announced Wednesday that she would not run for re-election this year, and has endorsed Pieciak.
After months of anticipation and delays, a crowd packed into the Statehouse lobby Thursday to watch the unveiling of a new portrait: Alexander Twilight, the first person of African descent to serve in a state Legislature and to graduate from a U.S. college.
Pollina will have been a member of the state Senate for 12 years when his term ends in January. But he has been a fixture in progressive Vermont politics since the 1980s.
