This commentary is by Rep. Jay Hooper, a democrat representing the Orange-Washington-Addison district in the Vermont House of Representatives.Urgent memorandum to Vermont Democrats writ large; we need your help heading into the 2025 legislative session, ahead of day one. They are making their lists, and checking them twice, but that’s just my point; historically, the “common good” has hardly ever been represented throughout behind-closed-curtains, private small group chats and one-on-one campaigning for speaker of the House.Over the next several weeks the race for speaker continues to invite public attention, so as to solve that problem. Traditionally, the speaker wins the contest by rumored momentum — foregoing any deliberate, real-time election process. Not this time, though, as we will actually have a real election for a change.The speaker most often gets elected, literally, by the absence of an election, typically by way of unanimous voice vote. Almost always a superficial expression of caucus unity. Basically an anti-vote, as it is an exercise in social expectation and political obligation every single time.This biennial political reality was proven true by my sole “nay” vote on Saturday, Dec. 7, when House Dems nominated by voice vote incumbent speaker Jill Krowinski. Though there are many Democrats who do not support Rep. Krowinski to continue as House speaker, they were each in no position to expose their dissent, for legitimate fear of political retribution.That Saturday Caucus was fairly lively for the first time in years, even though any real debate or candid discourse was shut down immediately, by a motion to disallow independent candidates from even being eligible for nomination itself. That day, 60 “yes” votes would confirm that we, as a divided caucus, would sooner eliminate the prospect of open discussion about the symptoms of our overall dysfunction than talk about why quite a many of us wish not to support the nomination of the incumbent. Luckily, the 18 of us who voted “no” to the question — so as to disagree with the politically xenophobic and hyperpartisan exclusivity regarding a harmless independent challenger — were able to do so by private ballot, and show the world that this is very much a real race. READ MORE Vermont House Democrats back Speaker Jill Krowinski after defeating an outsider’s bid for consideration by Ethan Weinstein December 7, 2024, 3:09 pmDecember 7, 2024, 10:12 pm The irony is, that it is indeed an ELEPHANT of all critters, living rent-free, smack-dab in the center of the House Democratic Caucus. We Democrats suffer from a dire non-communication dilemma in contemporary politics. We are most usually emotionally dishonest with ourselves, our colleagues and certainly our constituents, as we decorate everything we pitch as celebratory or protectionist, in all directions.It’s not so much that politicians lie, it’s that they completely avoid the “whole truth and nothing but.” Since there are usually more Dems in Montpelier than there are maple trees, we are altogether responsible for misplaced engagement with the public. We the Legislature are supposed to seek to place on the governor’s desk something that she, he or they would decidedly sign into law.Thankfully, this round is a major departure from the rather undemocratic “old boys club” norms, as we all know well ahead of the vote on the 8th of January that we will vote for one of the two candidates by private ballot. Thus, every member will vote their true preference, irrespective of perceived vote counts.This means that truly no multi-celled organism on planet earth could possibly know which of these two candidates is currently in the lead, at any point between now and the conclusion of this spirited speaker’s race. Not even the candidates themselves could tell you how many votes one has to the other.READ MORE Rep. Josie Leavitt: Rep. Laura Sibilia should be the next speaker of the House by Opinion December 11, 2024, 7:02 amDecember 10, 2024, 3:45 pm Vermont Dems: Rep. Josie Leavitt, one of our November casualties, recently wrote in a VTDigger commentary, “I want a speaker who is passionate and shows it. I want a speaker who inspires.” Please help us encourage a dose of sunlight to our non-communication-elephant problem. I personally want to support a leader who will take an interview anytime anywhere for almost anyone, to constantly report on legislative accountability, unscripted. Come out and inspire, Rep. Krowinski, please do this without hesitation. For Vermont.The ultimate concern I share with more lawmakers than we are today able to count, is that the current speaker of the House is simply not well versed on the issues — most problematically, Vermont’s most cherished constitutional right to free and fair public education. The best instance of a foregone opportunity to display comprehensive insight into our current crisis and recent history of Vermont education spending policy was on Feb. 28 in an interview with Mark Johnson on his podcast 802 News, beginning about 2 minutes and 55 seconds into the chat.Rep. Krowinski spoke about short, medium and long-term solutions being discussed in the House Education and House Ways and Means committees, but offered no single example of any policy specifics whatsoever. Mark asked for evidence, but never got anything more than buzzwords of the most ambiguous variety. Four minutes into the interview, Speaker Krowinski gave a nothing-burger example of a policy solution by saying nothing at all about school construction costs.So far, Rep. Jill Krowinski has signaled refusal to come out into the public eye and prove us critics right, though we so sincerely wish we were wrong.  It would be ideal to see the two candidates juxtaposing their views on the recent and more comprehensive policy history of education spending in Vermont. On Dec. 3, the speaker said it was “crucial to speak directly to Vermonters about the strategy for transforming our public education system and how we fund it before the legislative session begins in January.” House Republicans, Progressives, independents and undecided Democrats alike only stand to benefit from a speaker’s debate transparent to the public. All 148 members voting on the 8th would observe the leadership qualities of each, live, for all Vermont voters to witness. I suggest Sunday, January 5th, pretty much any place accessible to the disabled. Read the story on VTDigger here: Rep. Jay Hooper: Save public ed, if we aren’t too late.