Reading, PA – May 10: Pennsylvania State Rep and Democratic Leader Joanna E. McClinton speaks in front of Reading City Hall. Back left is Reading Mayor Eddie Moran.
Ben Hasty | Medianews Group | Getty Images
Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House in special elections Tuesday, wresting partial power from Republicans for the primary time in a dozen years within the competitive swing state.
Democrats won all three vacant Pittsburgh-area House seats to say a slim edge over Republicans, finally securing a majority they first appeared to have won in last November’s General Election. Republicans still hold the Senate, making a political division that would make it difficult for lawmakers to send priority bills to recent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The special elections capped several months of electoral drama.
Republicans held a cushty 113-90 House majority last 12 months. But once-a-decade redistricting and powerful performance in statewide races helped Democrats flip barely enough seats in the autumn election to win a 102-101 majority within the House. Or so it seemed. Three of those Democratic seats quickly became vacant, casting uncertainty over who actually controlled the chamber.
Rep. Tony DeLuca died of cancer in October, shortly before winning reelection, Rep. Summer Lee resigned after also winning a congressional election and Rep. Austin Davis quit before being sworn in as lieutenant governor.
That left Republicans with more people within the House than Democrats and led to a political impasse. The chamber elected Democratic Rep. Mark Rozzi as speaker as the brand new session began on Jan. 3, but only after Republican leaders and just a few other GOP members joined with all Democrats on the vote.
The House has been frozen since Rozzi took over and has not passed internal operating rules, assigned members to committees or approved any laws. Rozzi said last week he desires to retain the speakership when Democrats convene with their newly elected members.
At a news conference in Pittsburgh late Tuesday the Democratic floor leader, Rep. Joanna McClinton, said the three Democratic candidates had been “tossed into the mixer really quickly” to compete within the special elections.
She noted Democrats have been within the House minority for twenty-four of the past 28 years.
McClinton wants the speakership but said she didn’t need to “get ahead of the times to come back” because the election results are fully tabulated the certified, asking people to “please stay tuned to see what the need of this body shall be” when the House returns to voting session.
A couple of minutes after McClinton was done speaking, the clerk’s office sent out an email with notice of House floor sessions to resume in two weeks.
Democrats had been expected to win Tuesday’s special elections, because that they had easily won the identical seats last fall.
DeLuca’s former seat was won by Democrat Joe McAndrew, 32, a business owner who’s a former state House Democratic staffer and the previous executive director of Allegheny County’s Democratic committee. Lee’s former seat was won by Abigail Salisbury, 40, a lawyer and Democratic member of the Swissvale Borough Council. Matthew Gergely, a Democrat who works for the McKeesport city government, was elected to succeed Davis.
The special elections occurred only after the courts rejected an attempt by the House Republican floor leader, Rep. Bryan Cutler, to stop two of the contests from being selected Tuesday.
When the newly elected lawmakers take office, the House should be one member wanting its full complement. That is because Republican Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver won a special election Jan. 31 to fill a vacant state Senate seat.
