Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden-Southeast) is challenging incumbent Senate Majority Leader Sen. Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor) for the role — a sign that some Democrats want leadership changes in the Statehouse following last week’s disastrous election results. While she didn’t directly tie her bid to the party's poor showing, Ram Hinsdale said voters sent a clear message that change is the order of the day. “Vermonters are asking us to do more listening and less lecturing,” she wrote in an email to colleagues. “They want to see quality — not costs — added to their lives.” House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) is also facing a leadership challenge that Rep. Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) announced prior to the election. But Sibilia's potential path to the speakership, she said, had become “broader” in light of the election results. Democrats lost 18 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate as resurgent Republicans rode a wave of taxpayer outrage over soaring education spending and property taxes. Clarkson, the majority leader for four years, said Tuesday that the vote to fill that job will take place Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Statehouse. Senate Dems will also nominate a candidate for Senate president pro tempore, but are widely expected to choose Sen. Phil Baruth (D/P- Burlington), the current pro tem, again. Also up for nomination is a member of the powerful Committee on Committees, who would serve with the pro tem and lieutenant governor.  That's because Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) is retiring. Clarkson said she was running on her record of success and to help the caucus thrive. “I want to enable the caucus members to grow and shine in their work,” she told Seven Days. Clarkson said she helped build support for the policies that Senate Democrats advanced last session, often by overriding the governor. These votes were over the bills that will cut red tape for housing development, ban the use of seeds treated with pesticides that harm bees and allow for an overdose-prevention center to be established in Burlington. Communicating those accomplishments within the caucus and to constituents always needs improvement, she said.  She helped establish a full-time support position in the caucus for that purpose, she said. "We all need to be better at messaging our values and the policies we support and distilling them and making them understandable in lay terms," she said.  Because of the workload involved…