Note: This post has been updated with comment from the Progressive Party, see below.

This fall, Vermont’s political parties have undertaken their biennial obligation to reorganize themselves. It’s quite the task. The parties have to encourage members across the state to take part in town caucuses and establish town committees.

The process Is now over and the results are in. The Vermont Democratic Party had the biggest success, organizing town committees in more than 170 communities (they’re still totting up a few stragglers). The same process two years ago resulted in 150 Democratic town committees. That’s a nice bump, considering (a) they had less room to grow than the Republicans or Progressives, and (b) given the flood and all, it wasn’t the best year for encouraging turnout at political meetings.

The Vermont Republican Party lost a bit of ground, falling from 132 town committees in the 2021 reorg to 120 this time around. The Progs saw a modest increase from 44 towns in 2021 to 48 this year.

So what does it mean?

The obvious is that the well-established political pecking order remains intact. The Democrats have a dramatic edge on their rivals in terms of party organization. Indeed, their advantage has grown by a measurable if modest amount.

Having a lot of town committees gives the VDP a leg up in supporting campaigns across the state. This is especially helpful in races for the Vermont House, which depend on pounding the pavement and building networks. Many hands, as they say, make lighter work.

Still, the sheer numbers only tell you so much. Just because you can get a bunch of people to show up for one meeting doesn’t mean you can count on them to be productive for the ensuing two years. Some town committees exist primarily on paper. And some — looking at the Burlington Republican Committee, chaired by a transphobic street vandal — are more hindrance than help to a candidate trying to reach out to independent and moderate voters.

But it is a good, if rough, measure of a party’s breadth of support. And while the Democrats have a pretty strong web of grassroots organization, the Republicans have a lot of holes in their ranks. I counted a total of 21 communities with at least 2,000 residents where there is no Republican town committee — and 36 more with populations between 1,000 and 2,000.

Here’s the list of 2,000+ population towns where the Republicans couldn’t muster a critical mass: Alburgh, Bethel, Charlotte, Dorset, East Montpelier, Essex Junction (population 10,000), Hardwock, Hartford (10,000), Hartland, Hinesburg, Northfield (6,000), Pownal, Richmond, Rockingham, Shaftsbury, Wallingford, Waterbury (5,000), Westward, Williamstown, Wilmington, and Winooski (8,000). That’s a hell of a lot of places with too few Republicans — or too few who give a damn, anyway — to put together something as basic as a town committee.

Vermont Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Dandeneau is “feeling good” about the reorg, and feeling even better about the party’s roster of county chairs, which includes some “real heavy hitters.” He pointed to Windham County chair Lachlan Francis and Chittenden County chair Joanna Grossman as examples of experienced operatives ready to hit the ground running. (The Republicans did the Dems one better in county organizing; it has committees in all 14 counties, while the Dems failed to organize Essex County.) And the VDP has launched an intensive series of trainings for county and town chairs to equip them for 2024 and beyond. It’s an effort the Dems can afford to take on, while the Republicans and Progressives simply cannot.

Speaking of the Progs, their reorg reveals a continuing struggle to establish a true statewide party. Twelve of its 48 town committees are in Chittenden County, and nine are in Washington. That’s close to half of all Progressive town committees concentrated in only two counties. On the other hand, there are no Progressive town committees at all in five counties: Essex, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange, and Orleans. There’s only one in Bennington County, and only about a dozen south of Rutland.

Update. Progressive Party Executive Director Josh Wronski got in touch this morning. He says the party emphasized solidifying their position rather than expanding for the sake of expansion. “Our focus is building a strong organization,” he said. “It doesn’t help to establish a town committee that meets once every two years and never again. ….We intentionally did not organize a lot of towns we could have.” This seems a reasonable approach slash explanation. It still leaves the Progs a long way from the promised land, but it makes sense.

Grassroots organization isn’t everything. Phil Scott barely even tries, and he keeps on winning. But it certainly helps. And this year’s process has put the Democrats even farther ahead of their rivals in building a political network.