Windham County independent launches rare challenge for Vermont House speakership against Jill Krowinski – VTDigger

House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, has a challenger for her position leading Vermont’s state House of Representatives.

Five-term independent state Rep. Laura Sibilia of Dover on Tuesday announced her bid against Krowinski for the House’s top leadership post. In an email sent to her House colleagues, Sibilia said the House is wanting for “improved communication, collaboration and nonpartisan problem-solving.”

“While the governor shares some responsibility for the current climate, we must hold ourselves accountable as legislators and improve our communication with all members, branches of government, and, most importantly, Vermonters. Vermont and our public institutions cannot afford an extended political stalemate.”

Krowinski has occupied the role of speaker since 2021. Her own ascension to the office was thanks, in part, to a political ousting — after her predecessor, former House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, lost her reelection bid in November 2020.

In a written statement issued hours after Sibilia’s own announcement, Krowinski confirmed that she plans to run for reelection as House speaker.

“Currently, my focus has been on connecting with Vermonters in all 14 counties and hearing their thoughts,” Krowinski wrote Tuesday night. “It’s been a privilege to campaign in all corners of the state from Wilmington to Lyndon, Ludlow to St Albans. Knocking on doors and connecting with Vermonters has only solidified my belief that we can, and must, continue to take on the big issues we have ahead of us this biennium.”

In her email announcing her candidacy, Sibilia didn’t name her incumbent opponent, or take direct shots at her. But in an interview Tuesday evening, she offered more biting criticism.

“I will say that I believe she is almost universally well liked,” Sibilia said of Krowinski. “But there are significant numbers of members who are really concerned about our inability to get work done.”

That work, according to Sibilia, is on policy matters related to education, health care and Vermont’s overall cost of living. She said she is “concerned about our ability to communicate to Vermonters about what is happening — to reflect back to Vermonters what they, themselves, are telling us around affordability, around education, around healthcare.”

In her statement Tuesday night, Krowinski wrote of the challenges bound to face legislators in 2025, “These are complex issues that impact communities differently, and if there were easy solutions, we would have already acted.”

Sibilia is running for the House’s highest leadership position during an election cycle when Republican Gov. Phil Scott is campaigning harder than he has in years to help elect Republicans down the ballot. The aim, he says, is to break Democrats’ two-thirds supermajority in both the House and Senate, and moderate two chambers led by leaders who both hail from deep blue Chittenden County. (Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, also lives in Burlington.)

Sibilia, by contrast, lives in Dover in Windham County, co-chairs the House’s rural caucus and is one of only three independents in the House.

“I am not a member of the supermajority, so it’s not a mystery to me that what I am doing is difficult because of that,” Sibilia told VTDigger.

But after months of hearing her colleagues gripe against House leadership, Sibilia believes “it is a distinct possibility” she reaches the 76-vote threshold to oust Krowinski. And by challenging Krowinski to the role, she said her 149 House colleagues will have a rare choice. (Krowinski did not face competition for the role in 2023.)

“I’ve had many contested races myself. Contests are good for democracy,” Sibilia said. “And I’m not afraid to fail, but I’m also not on a fool’s errand, and this is not a stunt. I have done extensive work, and I believe it is appropriate, given that work and the encouragement and support that I have received, for there to be a choice.”