Vermont Senate

Last updated
Vermont State Senate
Vermont General Assembly
Seal of Vermont (B&W).svg
Type
Type
Term limits
None
History
New session started
January 4, 2023
Leadership
David Zuckerman (P)
since January 5, 2023
Philip Baruth (D)
since January 4, 2023
Majority Leader
Alison Clarkson (D)
since January 6, 2021
Minority Leader
Randy Brock (R)
since January 6, 2021
Structure
Seats30
Vermont Senate 2022.svg
Political groups
Majority (17)
  •    Democratic  (16)
  •    Progressive  (1)

Minority (7)

Length of term
2 years
AuthoritySection 7, Legislative Department, Constitution of Vermont
Salary$733.04 per week plus per diem during session
Elections
Last election
 November 5, 2024
Next election
 November 3, 2026
RedistrictingLegislative control
Meeting place
Vermont State Senate Chamber Panorama.jpg
State Senate Chamber,
Vermont State House
Montpelier, Vermont, U.S.
Website
Vermont State Senate

The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members elected from multi-member districts. Each senator represents at least 20,300 citizens. Senators are elected to two-year terms and there is no limit to the number of terms that a senator may serve.

Contents

As in other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the U.S. Senate, the Vermont Senate has special functions, such as confirming or rejecting gubernatorial appointments to executive departments, the state cabinet, commissions, boards, and (for the first six-year term) the state's judiciary.

The Vermont Senate meets at the Vermont State House in the state capital of Montpelier.

Districting and terms

The 30 senators are elected from 16 single and multi-member senate districts. The districts largely correspond to the boundaries of the state's 14 counties with adjustments to ensure equality of representation. Each district elects between 1 and 3 senators at-large depending on population. For the 2023–2033 districts, Seven districts elect one senator each, four districts elect two each, and five elect three. [1] Senators in multi-member districts are elected at-large throughout the district. Vermont is the only state to have any senate districts represented by more than two senators each, as well as the only state to employ bloc voting for senate elections. [2]

Vermont is one of the 14 states where the upper house of its state legislature serves at a two-year cycle, rather than the more common four-year term in the majority of states.

Senate district lines are drawn with an eye toward adhering to the boundaries of the state's 14 counties, and the districts are named after the county or counties in which the bulk of the district is located. However, due to equal representation requirements of the federal and state constitutions, most districts do not have precisely the same boundaries as their respective counties, containing either one or more towns from neighboring counties or not containing one or more from their own county (or both).

Leadership

The lieutenant governor of Vermont serves as the president of the Senate, but casts a vote only if required to break a tie. In the absence of the lieutenant governor, the president pro tempore presides over the Senate. The president pro tempore is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation from the entire body through a Senate resolution, and is the Senate's chief leadership position. The majority and minority leaders are elected by their respective party caucuses.

Committee assignments are determined by the Committee on Committees. This panel consists of the lieutenant governor, the president pro tempore and one member chosen by the full Senate. For several years the third member of the committee was Richard Mazza.

Composition of the Senate (2021–2023 legislative session)

AffiliationParty
(shading indicates majority caucus)
Total
Democratic Progressive Republican Vacant
End 20122118300
2013-20142027300
Begin 20151939300
End 20168291 [3]
2017-20182127300
Begin 20192226300
Begin 20212127300
Begin 20232217300
Latest voting share

Current leadership

PositionNamePartyResidenceDistrict
President David Zuckerman Prog/Dem Hinesburg
–
President pro tempore Philip Baruth Dem/Prog Burlington Chittenden-Central
Majority Leader Alison H. Clarkson Dem Woodstock Windsor
Assistant Majority Leader (Whip) Andrew Perchlik Dem/Prog Montpelier Washington
Minority Leader Randy Brock Rep Swanton Franklin

Current members

DistrictRepresentativePartyResidenceFirst elected
Addison Christopher A. Bray Dem New Haven 2012
Ruth Hardy Dem East Middlebury 2018
Bennington Brian Campion Dem Bennington 2014
Vacant [4] Dem
Caledonia Jane Kitchel Dem Danville 2004
Chittenden-Central Philip Baruth Dem/Prog Burlington 2010
Martine Gulick Dem Burlington 2022
Tanya Vyhovsky Prog/Dem Essex 2022
Chittenden-North Irene Wrenner Dem Essex 2022
Chittenden-Southeast Thomas Chittenden Dem South Burlington 2020
Virginia V. Lyons Dem Williston 2000
Kesha Ram Hinsdale Dem Burlington 2020
Essex Russ Ingalls Rep Newport 2020
Franklin Randy Brock Rep Swanton 2017↑
(2009–2013)
Robert Norris Rep Sheldon 2022
Grand Isle Andy Julow Dem North Hero 2024↑
Lamoille Richard A. Westman Rep Hyde Park 2010
Orange Mark MacDonald Dem Williamstown 2002
(1997–1999)
Orleans Robert A. Starr Dem North Troy 2004
Rutland Brian Collamore Rep Rutland Town 2014
David Weeks Rep Proctor 2022
Terry Williams Rep Poultney 2022
Washington Ann Cummings Dem Montpelier 1996
Andrew Perchlik Dem/Prog Montpelier 2018
Anne Watson Dem/Prog Montpelier 2022
Windham Wendy Harrison Dem Brattleboro 2022
Nader Hashim Dem Dummerston 2022
Windsor Alison H. Clarkson Dem Woodstock 2016
Richard McCormack Dem Bethel 2006
(1989–2003)
Rebecca White Dem Hartford 2022

Operations

The full Senate meets Tuesday and Friday mornings only for the first seven weeks of the annual session. [5]

The Vermont Senate is aided by a small administrative staff, including the secretary of the Vermont Senate and several assistants. [6] Since 2011, the Senate secretary has been John H. Bloomer, a former member of the Senate. [7] Previous secretaries include Ernest W. Gibson Jr., Murdock A. Campbell, and Franklin S. Billings Jr. [7]

History

Vermont had a unicameral legislature until 1836; most of the functions normally performed by an upper legislative house were the responsibility of the governor and council. The state abolished the governor's council and added a senate by constitutional amendment. [8]

The longest-serving member of the Vermont Senate was William T. Doyle; he was elected in 1968, reelected every two years until 2014, and defeated for reelection in 2016. Doyle served from January 1969 to January 2017; no other legislator in Vermont history—member of the Vermont House, member of the Vermont Senate, or member of both the House and Senate—has served longer than Doyle.

Former districts, 2002–2022

The following is from the Vermont Secretary of State. [9]

DistrictSenators
Addison 2
Bennington 2
Caledonia 2
Chittenden 6
Essex-Orleans 2
Franklin 2
Grand Isle 1
Lamoille 1
Orange 1
Rutland 3
Washington 3
Windham 2
Windsor 3

Notable members

Most individuals who have served as governor or lieutenant governor had experience in the Vermont legislature; many served in the State Senate. For more than 100 years from the 1850s to the 1960s, the Vermont Republican Party won every election for statewide office. In keeping with the "Mountain Rule", which was created to ensure party unity, governors and lieutenant governors were from opposite sides of the Green Mountains, and were limited to two years in office. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor were agreed upon by party leaders years in advance, and were often chosen for leadership positions in the House or Senate to groom them for statewide office.

Governors

Governors who served in the Vermont Senate include: William A. Palmer (post-governorship); Horace Eaton; Carlos Coolidge (post-governorship); John S. Robinson; Ryland Fletcher; Frederick Holbrook; Paul Dillingham; George Whitman Hendee; John Wolcott Stewart; Julius Converse; Horace Fairbanks; Redfield Proctor; Roswell Farnham; John L. Barstow; Ebenezer J. Ormsbee; William P. Dillingham; Carroll S. Page; Levi K. Fuller; Josiah Grout; John G. McCullough; Charles J. Bell; Fletcher D. Proctor; George H. Prouty; John A. Mead; Allen M. Fletcher; Charles W. Gates; Percival W. Clement; Redfield Proctor Jr.; John E. Weeks; Stanley C. Wilson; Charles Manley Smith; William H. Wills; Mortimer R. Proctor; Lee E. Emerson; Joseph B. Johnson; Philip H. Hoff (post-governorship); Peter Shumlin; and Phil Scott (incumbent).

Lieutenant governors

Vermont's lieutenant governors who served in the state senate include: Waitstill R. Ranney, Leonard Sargeant, William C. Kittredge, Jefferson P. Kidder, Burnham Martin, Levi Underwood, Abraham B. Gardner, Stephen Thomas, George N. Dale, Russell S. Taft, Lyman G. Hinckley, Eben Pomeroy Colton, Henry A. Fletcher, Farrand Stewart Stranahan, Zophar Mansur, Nelson W. Fisk, Henry C. Bates, Martin F. Allen, Zed S. Stanton, Charles H. Stearns, Leighton P. Slack, Hale K. Darling, Roger W. Hulburd, Abram W. Foote, Walter K. Farnsworth, Consuelo N. Bailey, Robert S. Babcock, T. Garry Buckley, Barbara Snelling (post-lieutenant governorship), Doug Racine, and David Zuckerman.

Members of Congress

Many of Vermont's members of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives also served in the Vermont Senate.

U.S. senators include Samuel S. Phelps, George F. Edmunds, Jonathan Ross, Porter H. Dale, Frank C. Partridge, Ernest Willard Gibson, Jim Jeffords, and Peter Welch (incumbent).

U.S. House members who served in the Vermont Senate include William Henry, Ahiman Louis Miner, George Tisdale Hodges, Frederick E. Woodbridge, H. Henry Powers, David J. Foster, William Hebard, Andrew Tracy, William W. Grout, Kittredge Haskins, Frank Plumley, Alvah Sabin, Homer Elihu Royce, Worthington Curtis Smith, Bradley Barlow, Augustus Young, Richard W. Mallary, Peter Plympton Smith, and Becca Balint (incumbent).

Other notable members

Other notable members of the Vermont Senate include:

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Senate Redistricting for 2022" (PDF). Caliper. 2021.
  2. ↑ "State legislative chambers that use multi-member districts". Ballotpedia. Retrieved Aug 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ Republican Norman H. McAllister (Alburgh-Franklin) was suspended from senatorial duties in 2015 through the end of his Senate term.
  4. ↑ Dick Sears died on June 1, 2024.
  5. ↑ Remsen, Nancy & Hallenbeck, Teri (January 8, 2009). Following the Legislature. Burlington Free Press.
  6. ↑ "Secretary of the Senate". Legislature.Vermont.gov. Montpelier, VT: Vermont General Assembly. 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  7. 1 2 "State of Vermont Secretaries of the Senate, 1836–2011" (PDF). Legislature.Vermont.gov. Montpelier, VT: Vermont General Assembly. 2011. p. 1. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  8. ↑ "REPORT OF THE LEGISLATIVE APPORTIONMENT BOARD: The 2001 Tentative Plan for the Vermont Senate" (PDF). Bluehouse Group. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Senate Redistricting for 2012" (PDF). Vermont Secretary of State. May 9, 2012.

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