Category Archives: Vermont Republican Party

I Don’t Think Vermont Republicans Really Want to Share a Stage with Planet Hank

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Warning: This post contains quite a lot of bad, offensive language. It all comes from the subject of the post. I feel that it must be presented in unexpurgated form because it illustrates the mindset of the subject. The worst of the language will be in quote boxes and preceded by trigger warnings.

Hey everybody, get a load of Hank Poitras, d/b/a Planet Hank, video artiste and right-wing provocateur who is scheduled to share a platform on Friday with state Rep. Michael Boutin of Barre and Vermont Republican Party chair Paul Dame.

Poitras is also, apparently, chair of the Brattleboro Republican Committee.

And I’m here to tell you that Vermont Republicans would be well advised to sever all ties with Poitras because he is provably a “misogynistic, narcissistic sociopath,” in the words of New Hampshire progressive videographer “Kyle from the Shire.” That characterization is fully warranted, given the flood of online content produced by Poitras himself. It includes plenty of racist, misogynistic, and hateful material, the kind of stuff that makes disgraced former senator Sam Douglass look like Mr. Rogers by comparison.

Oh, and he also has a criminal record from his time living in New Hampshire.

Best strap yourselves in, folks, because this is going to be a bumpy ride. Complete with trigger warnings.

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The Kids Give It Another Try, Accompanied by a Chorus of Fake-Ass First Amendment Claims

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Oh hey, remember the two ninth-graders who wanted to form a chapter of Turning Point USA at their high school? The ones who had to hastily cancel a January event at the Canadian Club in Barre?

Well, they’re back. Yep, gonna give it another try on February 20. Maybe someday they’ll learn to schedule events far enough in advance to rustle up a crowd.

Interesting that Turning Point USA appears nowhere on the meeting’s publicity materials. It’s now billed as “Club America,” which, you’ll be shocked to learn, is a TPUSA joint aimed at the high school crowd. Perhaps they realized that the name “Turning Point USA” is itself a red flag a-waving.

The boys have reined in their expectations regarding speakers. They’ve dropped the “Invited” list that (laughably) included Gov. Phil Scott and professional anti-trans activist Riley Gaines. Two of the confirmed speakers from January are back on the agenda: State Rep. Michael Boutin of Barre, a first-term lawmaker with some decidedly outré views, and Vermont Republican Party chair Paul Dame.

Which once again begs the question, why is the head of Phil Scott’s party choosing to associate with a couple of dipshit kids who want to bring ultraconservative extremism to Vermont? Somebody should ask him, and should ask the governor what he thinks of Dame’s complicity.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Held Because It’s Just Too Hard

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Spoiler alert: It ain’t happening.

The brave patriots of the Burlington Republican Committee scheduled a rally in support of Trump’s jackbooted thugs — and then postponed because, well, it might be too cold outside and they want to arrange police protection in case they’re harassed by counter-protesters.

To be fair, it is supposed to be very cold and they could be vastly outnumbered by their opponents. Still, they seem easily discouraged. Maybe they should hold their rally in Bill Oetjen’s living room, which should be (a) comfortably warm, (b) secure from outsiders, and (c) more than large enough to accommodate the entire city committee.

Good thing the Founders were made of sterner stuff, or we might still be paying taxes to the Crown.

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There Is Nothing Like a Dame

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Congratulations, I guess? to Paul Dame for his re-election as Vermont Republican Party chair. He overcame a challenge by state Sen. Russ Ingalls in a 50-47 vote at the party’s convention on Saturday.

The margin does not speak of a rousing endorsement for a two-term incumbent. Quite the opposite, in fact. Dame has been in office since 2021, and almost half of the VTGOP’s ruling class wanted him gone? That’s not a positive indicator for Dame’s third term or for the party itself.

Completely absent from the convention, and from the Dame v. Ingalls campaign as a whole, was Gov. Phil Scott. It was a return to his pre-2024 abstention from the Republican political scene, which doesn’t bode well for the party or Dame as we enter a 2026 campaign season likely to be dominated by anti-Trump backlash.

Did the party make the right call? No idea. Ingalls was correct in pointing out that Dame has failed to improve the VTGOP’s dire financial situation, but would the senator have done any better? We’ll never know.

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It’d Be More Fun If the Party Conventions Looked Like This

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Hey, time for an update on the races for state party chairs! Feel the excitement!

The Vermont Democratic and Republican parties are electing chairs this month. Both races are contested, but that’s where the similarities end. The Democrats are conducting a polite, restrained kind of election, while the Republicans seem to be borrowing heavily from Lord of the Flies.

We’ll do the Republicans first because (a) it’s a lot more entertaining and (b) their election comes first. The VTGOP’s convention is this Saturday the 8th, while the Democrats convene the following Saturday.

Since last I wrote about these contests, incumbent VTGOP Chair Paul Dame has been on one. He’s been campaigning at a furious pace and, ignoring Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment, chastising those who dare support the other candidate, state Sen. Russ Ingalls, who hasn’t been shy about firing back.

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You Know, Maybe We’re Better Off Without Larry Hart

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Seven Days’ legislative reporter Hannah Bassett is out with a short piece about Larry Hart’s resignation as state senator from the Orange district, not named in honor of Donald Trump’s skin tone. Surprise, surprise, Hart couldn’t take “the frustrations of Statehouse politics,” which generally sideline the concerns and ideas of the minority party.

Yeah, how about that, elections have consequences.

And then we get to paragraph five, which is just an absolute stunner.

Hart also said he grew frustrated by measures advanced by the Democratic majority. He said many of the policies he objected to appeared to be driven by Democratic members who were not born in Vermont. Hart said he anticipates that Republican legislators will introduce a bill in January that would bar anyone not born in the state from running for public office.

[record scratch]

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT???!?!??!!

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Sam Douglass Enters the Lucrative Field of Self-Pity Monetization

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Oh, you didn’t seriously think disgraced former (?*) state senator Sam Douglass would learn something from his mistakes? Nah, that’s not how today’s crop of neo-Nazis roll.

*Douglass announced Friday afternoon that he would resign on Monday. But VTDigger has reported** that as of 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, no resignation letter had been received. And as of 12:00 noon Wednesday, Douglass is still listed as a senator on the Legislature’s website.

** Digger also brings us the darkly humorous aspect of this sad affair: Douglass apparently remains chair of the Orleans County Republicans, which means he is in charge of the first steps in the process of filling his vacant (???*) seat in the Senate.

Indeed, Douglass has doubled down on the notion that he is the real victim here, a popular idea in far-right circles. He has taken to GiveSendGo, the Evangelical crowdfunding alternative to GoFundMe, to beg for money from the gullible. And maybe he’ll cash in; he’s counting on the old H.L. Mencken axiom, which is usually a safe bet. But it’s sad that he hasn’t learned a damn thing from the self-induced implosion of his political career.

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Whiny Little Bitch-Ass Punk Resigns in Whiniest, Littlest, Most Bitch-Ass Punk Way Possible

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If there was any doubt about whether soon-to-be-ex-senator Sam Douglass was unfit to hold public office, he removed it with his self-indulgent, clueless resignation statement — newsdumped on Friday afternoon, no less, without ever speaking to a single reporter.

If anything, it was even worse than the non-apology “apology” he issued the day before.

It was longer, that’s for damn sure. It rambles on mawkishly for a page and a half, single spaced. VTDigger has embedded the whole thing in its story on Douglass’ departure, so you can go read it there if you want to. I don’t have the stomach for it.

The heart of the matter is his assertion that he is resigning “to keep my family safe.” So he thinks he’s the real victim, I guess?

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Musical Chairs

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Next month could bring leadership changes in both of Vermont’s major parties. On the Republican side, November’s election for party chair has produced a spirited contest. The incumbent faces a challenge from a prominent elected official and seems to be in some trouble with party brass.

More on that in a moment, but first, we’ve got breaking news from the Vermont Democratic Party. Jim Ramsey, who was chosen as interim chair last winter following the sudden departure of David Glidden, will not seek election to a full two-year term. When he succeeded Glidden in February, Ramsey delivered stirring remarks to the VDP state committee, castigating Gov. Phil Scott’s “harmful policies,” calling for the party to field “a competitive candidate” to run for governor in 2026, and concluding “Let’s go to work, and let’s win.”

Well, if any of that comes to pass, Ramsey won’t be around to see it. Here’s how he explained his decision in an email to this observer:

Over the course of the past few months, my work commitments outside of the VDP have been increasing, and much of it is occurring away from Vermont, particularly in Washington, DC.  This is expected to continue at least through 2026 and into 2027.  As a result, my wife and I will soon be moving there on a full-time basis, and my role as VDP Chair will end when my term expires next month.  

Not great news for the party, which has struggled for years to find good leaders and keep them in place. There’s been a lot of turnover in the unpaid position of party chair and the paid staff position of executive director. Now they’ll be breaking in a new chair with the 2026 campaign season just around the corner.

When Ramsey was chosen as interim chair, there was another hopeful in the running: former state senator turned podcaster Andy Julow. Would he be interested in another run? Magic 8-Ball says “Ask Again Later.”

Now, back to the Republicans.

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The Next Apology Will Be the First One

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One of my pet peeves of modern journalism is its willingness to slap the label “apology” on things that fall far short of actual apologies, which require an acknowledgement of personal wrongdoing and a real commitment to self-improvement.

It’s bad enough when public figures, usually politicians, get away with the “I apologize to anyone who was offended” routine, which shifts the onus onto those who were offended and implies that the offender didn’t really do anything wrong. What’s worse is when VTDigger gives state Sen. Sam Douglass credit for an “apology” in his first public statement after the explosive POLITICO report that threatens to sink his political career.

It was not an apology, not at all. Douglass did use the words “I apologize,” but not in reference to anything he said or did. Instead, he vaguely waved around in the passive tense about stuff that happened while he might have been in the vicinity but wasn’t paying attention.

And Digger’s headline called it an “apology.” Whoever wrote that headline should read a frickin’ dictionary.

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