The Vermont Republican Party wants him elected Chittenden County’s top prosecutor. He doesn’t want the job.

The Vermont Republican Party is putting up a candidate, for the first time, to challenge Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George in November’s election. But the party’s choice does not actually want the job.

Instead, Jace Laquerre, a software engineer from Milton, is entering the race with what a GOP press release called “a specific commitment”: He will resign immediately if he wins. That would create a vacancy in the office to be filled by an appointee of the governor, who would serve out the duration of the office’s four-year term.

The move drew prompt and pointed criticism from George, who is seeking her third term as the top prosecutor in the state’s most populous county. She called it “an open attempt to co-opt a local election” in a statement this week.

Laquerre’s unconventional candidacy comes after George’s challenger in the Democratic primary last month, Bram Kranichfeld, lost that race but got enough write-in votes on Republican ballots to win the latter party’s nomination. There was no candidate on the Republican primary ballot for the office. Kranichfeld got 455 write-in votes.

After the election, Kranichfeld withdrew his nascent GOP candidacy, according to Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont Republican Party. That left the party with a vacancy on the ballot that Dame said he and other party leaders did not want to leave blank. 

So, the party chose someone else in order “to provide voters with an alternative to the incumbent and ensure that the State’s Attorney’s race offers a meaningful choice,” the party’s press release said, also referring to it as a “referendum” on George’s tenure.

The Democratic primary was fiercely contested and its outcome was close. George won 49% of the vote to Kranichfeld’s 46%.

The race turned on George’s focus on progressive criminal justice reform policies during her tenure and criticism, from Kranichfeld and his supporters, that in some cases those policies had made the county less safe. Kranichfeld, who currently serves as the state’s attorney in Franklin County, campaigned on the need for both compassion as well as greater accountability when handling criminal cases. George has said her approach to the job focuses on improving equity and limiting already vulnerable people’s interactions with the prison system.

Laquerre, in the press release announcing his candidacy, echoed many of the critiques of George’s tenure that featured in the Democratic primary. 

“I do not believe we can afford four more years of Sarah George’s overly lenient, catch-and-release prosecutorial policies,” Laquerre said. “I believe, as do many others, that these policies have made our communities less safe, and the recent issues in Burlington are evidence of that.”

George defended her record in her statement earlier this week, saying that Chittenden County voters “know the difference between fear and safety. They know the issues our community faces are not just ours, and that real solutions require far more than just pointing fingers at the legal system.”

The GOP maneuver “is the epitome of undemocratic, and the people of this county won’t stand for it,” George said.

Laquerre said in an email that he is not an attorney and has never worked in the legal field. He said he doesn’t think that matters, though, because he does not intend to actually hold the office. He said he also does not plan to run a traditional campaign such as raising money and putting up yard signs, instead hoping a “grassroots” movement of people will galvanize support on his behalf. 

Dame, the GOP party chair, said the party typically devotes few if any resources to county races and is instead focused on winning more seats in the state Legislature. 

Laquerre is no stranger to Republican politics, though: As a teenager, he was one of Vermont’s delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention. He credited U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., as his inspiration for getting involved in politics at the time, according to an article about him in Voice of America. 

Republican Gov. Phil Scott told reporters before the primary that he thought Kranichfeld was the better candidate. Scott also posted a video to his campaign Facebook page urging Republicans and independents to vote in the state’s attorney’s race, calling it “consequential for public safety issues” but not naming either candidate.

Though he and members of his administration have criticized George as of late, Scott was the one who first gave George her job. He appointed her to the office in 2017 to fill a vacancy left by TJ Donovan. Two other options Scott considered at the time, notably, were Kranichfeld and Ted Kenney — the latter of whom George defeated in the Democratic primary for state’s attorney in 2022.

George did not face a general election challenger when running for state’s attorney for the first time in 2018 or again in 2022. 

It’s possible Gov. Scott would be the one to appoint Laquerre’s replacement, if Scott wins reelection this fall. It’s customary for governors to replace outgoing officials with others from the same political party, so if Laquerre wins, his replacement would likely be a Republican. 

Laquerre said in the GOP press release that he did not have a particular successor in mind.

Amanda Wheeler, a spokesperson for Scott, said in a statement that the governor had “no knowledge of and no involvement in” the decision to run a GOP candidate in this year’s race. Scott has not met Laquerre and “has not considered what a win in that race would mean,” Wheeler said.

“He does, however, continue to believe it’s important in a democracy for voters to have choices,” Wheeler added. “It’s clear there is a lot of dissatisfaction in Chittenden County and the policies that have been implemented over the years.”

Laquerre’s candidacy makes Chittenden County the third county in the state set to see a competitive, and somewhat unconventional, race for state’s attorney this fall. 

In Franklin County, Zach Weight — who helped lead the recent “accountability court” program in Chittenden County — won the Republican and Democratic primaries. Also on the ballot will be John Lavoie, who is running as an independent.

Lavoie served in the county office for decades and was elected in 2022 to lead it, but resigned the following year amid a Vermont House probe into whether he should be impeached. The inquiry was sparked by a report that found he had repeatedly harassed and discriminated against his employees.

In nearby Grand Isle County, Doug DiSabito — the incumbent state’s attorney — also won the Democratic and GOP primaries but is facing an independent challenger, Joshua Martin. DiSabito was arrested in April on a drunken driving charge, though his case was later deferred to court diversion, meaning he was not prosecuted. 

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