Hearty congratulations to the Vermont Progressive Party, which is no longer the smallest caucus in the Legislature. That honor now passes to the Libertarian Party, which zoomed all the way from zero to one with the dubious acquisition of first-term Rep. Jarrod Sammis, seen above on his revised legislative webpage.

You might recall Sammis as the only one of the 24 “stealth conservative” Republicans I profiled who actually won last November, thanks in part to the rub he got from Vermont’s Favorite Republican:

Congratulations to Gov. Phil Scott for his endorsement of a guy who lasted… not quite four months as an elected Republican. Brilliant move, sir.

Just to refresh your memory, Sammis snagged the Republican nomination in the Rutland-3 district, which had been safe Republican territory, and then barely managed to beat Democrat Mary Droege by a whopping [checks notes]… um… 42 votes.

And that was after Sammis had run a fundamentally deceitful campaign that sought to obscure his extremist leanings. He’s the one who launched his campaign by scrubbing his social media presence, which had been chock full of pro-militia and pro-gun sentiments, not to mention conspiracizing about the 2020 election and the Covid pandemic. This is a screenshot from one of his more unhinged productions, featuring a “rainbow unicorn” who’s about to unleash his assault weapon at some imaginary Socialists.

…”Rainbow Unicorns” being the name of a Tennessee-based militia organization. But I’m sure that was nothing more than coincidence.

The defection of Sammis leaves the Republicans with a House caucus of 37, and leaves House Commerce and Economic Development Committee chair Michael Marcotte as the one and only Republican on the committee.

Not that Sammis did much heavy lifting on the panel. He seemed to have little taste for policymaking scutwork, which is not terribly surprising for a guy who’s more accustomed to activities like shooting low-rent videos in a unicorn mask.

It would behoove the Republicans to get off their asses and find a new candidate for Rutland-3. They suddenly face an uphill battle in what used to be Bob Helm’s backyard if Sammis runs for re-election as a Libertarian and the Democrats renominate the nearly successful Ms. Droege.

You want to know why the Republicans have sunk to historically low levels in the Statehouse? Look no further than Jarrod Sammis. He was their success story in 2022, and just look at him now.