Jake Perkinson is resigning as chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, effective three days from now. The press release:

Montpelier, Vt. – On Tuesday evening, Vermont Democratic Party Chair Jake Perkinson informed the State Committee of his intentions to resign as Chair. Perkinson’s resignation will become effective on Saturday, March 16 at which point Vice Chair Dottie Deans will service (sic) as Interim Chair until party reorganization elections in November.

“Over the past decade I have worked along with hundreds of other volunteers who have dedicated countless hours to building a better Democratic Party,” said Perkinson. “Because of that hard work, we are in a prime position to move Vermont forward. At every point in this journey I have been humbled by the selfless service of our committee members and volunteers at every level. Now is an opportune time for me to depart because the Party has never been stronger or more secure in its operations.”

“The VDP is now poised to fulfill the obligations of supporting the policies and politicians that are overwhelmingly favored by the Vermont electorate. I’d like to thank our Governor, elected officials, the party staff, and the people of Vermont for the wonderful opportunity,” Perkinson concluded.

I’m not a connected guy, but this certainly seems like a bolt out of the blue. There’s certainly no results-based reason for him to go, since the party is at a historic high point. And, as it happens, I interviewed Jake a couple weeks ago when I was guest-hosting The Mark Johnson Show on WDEV, and there was no hint of anything like this.

Whatever’s going on, Jake has done his job extremely well, and I wish him the best.

Update: I just got off the phone with party spokesflack Ryan Emerson. His comments after the jump.

Ryan Emerson’s comments on Perkinson’s departure:

“This has been in the works for a couple of weeks. Historically, after an election cycle, chairs tend to step down. They usually stay on for two years, max. Jake is very hands-on and active, but it takes a lot of time.

“This is a good time. The party is in a good position, we’re fully staffed, and we have confidence in Dottie Deans.”

There’s also a solid candidate-in-waiting to take Deans’ spot as vice-chair: David Scherr, currently chair of the Burlington Dems.

Emerson expanded on the seemingly sudden nature of the announcement:

“We’d wanted to keep it under wraps until as close to the [party] committee meeting as possible. Sometimes, if there’s more advance notice, you get a lot of public speculation and innuendo, and we didn’t want that.”

There you go. According to Emerson, a natural transition at a good time. No scandals, no emergencies.