Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Scanlon takes helm of 7th District in Congress
Swarthmore Dem becomes 1st woman from Pa. since 2014
Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon was sworn in as Congresswoman for PA’s 7th Congressional District Tuesday.
Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon was given little time for orientation after being sworn in as Congresswoman for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District Tuesday.
“I had a vote last night after I was sworn in,” she said Wednesday. “It’s immediate.”
Scanlon, of Swarthmore, described the experience of simultaneously being sworn in, receiving briefings and trying to get her office up and running as “absolutely like drinking from a fire hose.”
Scanlon defeated Republican Pearl Kim for the post in a special election last week, as well as a regular election for the newly drawn 5th Congressional District. Both women had been selected as nominees by their respective parties for both positions in the spring Primary Election.
The current 7th District had been occupied by Republican Pat Meehan, who was up for re-election this year but resigned in April amidst an ethics investigation after it came to light that he had used nearly $40,000 in taxpayer money from his office funds to settle a former aide’s sexual harassment claim.
Scanlon replaces Meehan for the few weeks remaining in that term, but the district as currently drawn will essentially cease to exist come January and will henceforth be in Lehigh and Northhampton counties. Scanlon will then be sworn in to the 5th District, encompassing all of Delaware County, the southwestern corner of Philadelphia and a sliver of Montgomery County along the Main Line.
Scanlon, the first woman in the Pennsylvania delegation since 2014, spoke shortly before casting another vote Wednesday, but said the agenda this week is largely for “routine” things like renaming post offices,
so she was not required to know the intricacies of substantial policy-making legislation on day one.
Weightier issues like reauthorizing the 2014 Farm Bill and 1994 Violence Against Women Act, both of which expired at the end of September, are looming in late November and early December, however.
“So, we’re waiting to see what’s going to happen there, but it is still a lame duck session without a lot of change in terms of representation, so the Republicans still control both the House and the Senate,” said Scanlon.
That will also change come January, as Scanlon joins a slew of new Democrats entering the House. As of Wednesday, Democrats had gained at least 33
seats and flipped the chamber 228 to 198 in their favor, though another nine seats remain in question.
As an official member of the 115th Congress due to the special election, Scanlon will have a smidge of seniority over her fellow Democrats, though she is not sure just how much that will translate on the ground and suspected Connor Lamb, who won his own special election in March for the 18th District, might have just a little bit more.
“I am sort of a sophomore,” she said. “Hopefully it applies to committee assignments, but I do know I get to pick room assignments before the freshman class, so that’s helpful, and there’s a handful of us in that position.”
As to committee assignments, Scanlon said she wants to put in for positions that would most help the district. She said her
experience would make her a natural fit for the Judiciary or Education committees, but noted Transportation and Infrastructure are also clearly important to her constituency.
“I’m trying to talk to as many people right now (as I can) to see what’s possible, and then ultimately I don’t get to pick, but I’ll try to put in selections that will benefit the district and where I can really make a contribution,” she said.
Scanlon, an attorney by trade and former member of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board, had been the head of Ballard Spahr’s pro bono division for 15 years, but had to resign before taking up her new mantle as congresswoman.
“It was the best job I’ve ever had, but I think I might have just found a better one,” she said. “(It’s) harder, but I’m really able to be of service here.”