For the second time in less than a year, the Vermont Democratic Party is looking to fill its top staff position. Its current executive director, Josh Massey, plans to leave his post later this month.
Massey’s predecessor, Conor Casey, resigned in June 2018 — just as campaign season was kicking into high gear — to take a position with the Vermont-National Education Association. Massey was hired in July.
As a former party staffer, Massey had the experience to step in at a crucial time. But now, he’s not sure he wants to go through it all again. “It’s a lot to put my family through,” he said. “2018 was my third election cycle with the party. I’ve served my time.”
Massey and party chair Terje Anderson say they reached a mutual decision that it was better to cut ties before the next campaign season begins.
“I’ll be picking up some of the executive director functions,” Anderson said. “We’re taking our time and evaluating the job description. We plan to have someone on board by sometime this summer.”
After the 2018 election, the party cut loose all but two of its paid staffers: Massey and political director Brandon Batham. Now, Anderson said, a rebuild has begun. Spencer Dole is on board as House campaign director; he can often be seen prowling the Statehouse halls. The party plans to rehire R. Christopher DiMezzo as communications chief, effective April 23, thanks in part to a union contract signed between party and staff in 2017. “Under the contract, Chris had call-back rights,” Anderson said. “But we would have hired him anyway.”
Eventually, Massey plans to seek employment with a labor union. Between now and then, he’s going to go to work for his wife, Melissa. “She owns a yoga clothing business, Subtle Soul Studio,” Massey said. “Her business is really growing, and I’m going to help with a big festival coming up in June.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Maybe the new leader of the vermont Democratic Party will support democrats and not progressives. If that was the case, i would consider voting democrats again instead of voting a straight Republicans ticket. One can hope.
whats wrong with this terje guy that all his staff keep quitting? if this were a business it would be closed.
@forestgimp, lol. If you’re voting straight Republican in this day in age, there is nothing the Democratic party can do other than become Republican-lite that will help you change your votes. Hopefully, nobody in the Democratic party is interested in chasing your vote.
“there is nothing the Democratic party can do other than become Republican-lite that will help you change your votes.”
Sorry, but that’s just plain wrong. Everybody knows that Scott got elected with a huge number of D votes. You’d probably have a Democratic governor right now if the Party hadn’t chased so many moderate Ds into the arms of Scott. There’s a lot that the Dems could and should do to court and include moderates. Like stop nominating Ps to run for office as Ds, for one. And stop proposing to tax everything in sight. And stop giving your best effort to drive any and all business activity out of Vermont, along with our youth, with regulation and taxes.