Citing a desire to focus on his health, Vermont Republican Party chairman Jack Lindley announced Wednesday he will not seek reelection to his leadership post. The GOP party boss has been recovering from an unspecified illness since September.

“My time and energy is best spent working on building my strength and fully recovering,” Lindley (pictured at right) told fellow Republicans in an emailed statement, which was first reported by the Vermont Press Bureau’s Neal Goswami.

Lindley, who has led the party since February 2012, urged his fellow party members to elect former senatorial candidate John MacGovern as party chairman when the Vermont GOP meets this weekend in Montpelier. MacGovern is facing off against former Rutland state representative David Sunderland, the preferred pick of Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.

MacGovern, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last November, said Thursday he was “deeply moved and honored” to earn Lindley’s support. 

“We should not be ashamed of our values,” MacGovern said in an emailed statement. “Our ideas, of a smaller, more limited government with more personal freedom and individual liberty and responsibility are winning ideas.”

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Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

3 replies on “As Vermont Republicans Squabble Over Leadership, Lindley Exits Race for Chairman”

  2. Unfortunately the past two presidents have caused this backlash. Dubya started it, and the democrats elected Obama, not a middle of the road guy but a left of the left guy. The answer for some has become the tea party. The country has chosen to fight one extreme with the opposite extreme and that has caused tremendous damage to our unity as a nation. Phil Scott is absolutely correct in what needs to happen… we need to move back towards the center. The latest polls show this over and over again. Glad to see someone trying to right the ship.
    Abortion has been settled, ObamaCare has been settled, Gay Marriage has been settled… The republican party needs to accept it and move on. They need to lead by being pro-active and firm. Put forth a budget that makes sense, stops the borrowing and returns to the US to the black. Detail how and accept that it can not all be spending cuts. Some of it will have to come from revenue increases… maybe in the form of eliminating tax deductions and loop holes. Get back to the fiscal conservatism that has been the Party’s trademark… Put forth an immigration reform law that makes sense… The Left can vote this down if they wish, but the right has to be willing to say here’s our plan, this is why it makes sense and it is the party in charge that is holding it up…
    The media has done a great job at painting the right as the party of no, but what gets far less attention is that there is no compromise from either side. The right maybe the party of no, but the left is the party of no as well. When you have two extremes you can not have compromise and forward progress.

  3. The Perfect
    Leader to Destroy the Vermont Republican Party !
    When I saw the story in on the front page of the Sunday Times Argus (Oct. 27), I thought that the paper was indulging in a little satire. “John MacGovern as the leader of the Vermont Republican Party”- Jake Perkinson and Dottie Deans
    (VT Democratic leaders) could not have engineered a better way to destroy their
    opposition.
    After a moment of reflection I realized this was a real story. “Angry” Jack Lindley had been stricken with by a serious illness a month earlier and was hospitalized at Dartmouth – Hitchcock in Hanover. At the time I had received an e-mail from MacGovern’s campaign web-site echoing information that had been sent by the Vermont Republicans days earlier and had appeared in both the print and electronic media. I thought it was a little self-serving and self-promoting as I hit the delete button, it did not dawn on me that “Johnny Mac” could fancy himself as the next leader of the state Republican Party.
    I need to explain (and confess) that John and I competed in the Vermont Primary race last year and I learned a great deal about this fellow. While John projects a very affable persona, the real fellow is simultaneously aloof and vacuous. John fancies himself to be the Republican’s equivalent of John Kerry – always attempting to imitate Kerry’s voice and cadence when speaking publically (both vainly attempting to imitate President Kennedy). One-on-one his tone is somewhat more approachable. As to ideas and philosophies, John’s recitations are a combination of theories advanced by the Tea Party, Ron Paul and Grover Norquist – strident
    conservatives who test the limits of bearing to the right. Beyond taxation and “reducing the size of government”, John was radically deficient on positions ranging from the legalization & commercialization of marijuana, improving education or
    encouraging the placement of the F35s at BTV. When subjects that were “off
    script” arose, John invariably resorted to “I’d have to give that some thought”
    or “I’m studying the issue”.

    I find it incredible that John would even want to be considered for a role in the Vermont Republican Party, let alone be selected as its leader. During our short-lived campaign contest he frequently complained that Lindley and the Republicans in Montpelier “could not be trusted”. While I was never welcomed as a candidate by Jack Lindley or his party operatives; I believed, (and still believe) that they are devoted conservatives with the best interest of the party and the state at heart. John MacGovern is concerned with what’s best for John MacGovern – Period.
    In recent days, John MacGovern has takengreat liberties in attacking moderate Vermont Republicans, especially Lt. Gov. Phil Scott. Don Turner, Joe Benning, Randy Brock and Heidi Scheurmann, as well as Scott, are just a few of the many dedicated Republicans seeking a “middle way” to infuse conservative values into a message that is acceptable to the Rock-Ribbed Republicans, like myself, and at the same time attractive to independents and conservative Democrats who understand that the Vermont Democratic Party is directing the state toward financial ruin and social chaos.
    Today the Republicans are meeting in Montpelier to elect new leadership that will serve the party for the next election cycle and beyond. Republican leaders including Gov. Jim Douglas and Lt. Gov. Phil Scott have endorsed David Sunderland of Rutland; they feel that David will be a valuable asset as party leader and will attract new and younger individuals who have an interest in Vermont’s future.

    Vermont has many great Republicans who are capable of leading the party with a new sense of purpose and pride – John MacGovern is not one of those individuals!
    H. Brooke Paige
    H. Brooke Paige is a resident of Washington (VT) and a lifelong member of the Republican Party. Brooke lost to John MacGovern in the 2012 Republican Primary race for U. S. Senate before winning one of Washington’s five Justice of the Peace positions in the general election.

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