Dems, GOP continue battle for Pa. House
HARRISBURG — Sparring over majority control in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives continues between Democrats and Republicans as the ruling parties have failed to agree on which side is in power and how to proceed when members take their oaths next month.
The midterm elections are finished and though formal statewide certification is delayed due to precinct-level challenges, Democrats won 102 House elections — one more than Republicans in the 203member chamber.
That election-victory margin is what determines majority control of the state House, Democratic Leader Rep. Joanna McClinton, of Philadelphia, said Thursday, and not the number of members who will ultimately be sworn into office.
That includes the appointment of an “acting speaker,” a position Ms. McClinton declared her own. She referred to a situation in spring 2003 when the House speaker position was vacated due to a death and filled in an “acting” manner by the House majority leader at the time. The decision was based on a section of Act 104 of 1979 concerning the resolution of a speaker vacancy.
“Today, the Democratic Caucus is the majority party in the House of Representatives,” Ms. McClinton said during media availability with Capitol press.
“We will embrace the challenge of having a very modest majority,” she said, striking a bipartisan tone and saying both parties must, and will, find common ground when
legislating in the new session.
The counterpoint from Republican House Leader Rep. Bryan Cutler, of Lancaster, whose own term as House speaker ended at midnight Thursday, is that there simply is no majority and no majority leader.
That’s because of the circumstances for vacancies surrounding three House seats retained at the election by Democrats, all in Allegheny County.
“The fact that there is a tie at 101 to 101, means there is, in fact, no majority. That also means there is, in fact, no majority leader. There is a Democrat leader and a Republican leader,” Mr. Cutler said from the Capitol on Thursday. “What we don’t get to do is count vacancies toward a majority.”
The House 2nd District is vacated by Rep. Tony DeLuca, who died in October but still won election, his death coming after the statutory deadline to have his name removed from ballots. Reps. Summer Lee and Austin Davis won re-election in the 34th and 35th districts, respectively. They also won separate elections for higher offices.
Mr. Davis becomes lieutenant governor on Jan. 17. He’ll presumably be seated when the entire state House takes their collective oath on Jan. 3, a position he’ll ultimately have to resign to become lieutenant governor. That day, however, members of Congress will also be sworn in and with them will be Ms. Lee, who won Pennsylvania’s 12th U.S. House District.
Democrats and Republicans will at the very least deadlock at 101 members each on swearing-in day, when lawmakers begin to vote on matters in the General Assembly. It’s most likely that Democrats will have 100 members — one less than Republicans. Depending on the timing of Mr. Davis’s resignation, it could even be 99.
Republicans look to be in the position of a voting majority, if only temporarily. As Mr. Cutler has said more than once, the first order of business will be to choose a new House speaker.
And, there’s the matter of choosing the dates for special elections to fill the three seats. The speaker sets the dates.
As one of his final acts as speaker in the 2021-22 term — terms ended on Nov. 30 — Mr. Cutler on Wednesday issued a Writ of Elections to set Feb. 7 for the special election to replace DeLuca in the 32nd District. He cited Allegheny County’s election certification last week as formalizing the vacancy.
Mr. Cutler, who chided Ms. McClinton for having a closed press session in a virtual format, referred to a situation in 2010 when a former speaker issued a writ for a special House election in the following session.
Special elections can’t be held prior to 60 days from when a writ is issued.
Though the month of December is a buffer of sorts, the 2023-24 session technically began last Thursday. With that, Ms. McClinton said DeLuca’s vacancy was made formal. She planned to issue a writ of her own setting a special election date, though that didn’t happen last Thursday. She would not say which date she intended to choose.
As reported by Capitolwire, in December 2004, a former Republican majority leader, Sam Smith, “took the precedent-setting step” of sharing himself into office early before signing a writ for a special election to fill a vacancy in February 2005. The state Supreme Court ultimately sided with Mr. Smith.
Resignations from Ms. Lee and Mr. Davis haven’t been submitted, Ms. McClinton said, withholding further comment on potential dates for those impending special elections.
There could also be yet another special election in the House later in 2023. That will depend on the outcome of another special election — this one in the state Senate — to fill the remaining two years of the term of former Sen. John Gordner, who resigned in late November.