HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House in a special election Tuesday, wresting partial power from Republicans for the first time in 12 years in a competitive state.
Democrats won all three Open House seats in the Pittsburgh area to claim a slight lead over Republicans, finally securing the majority they appeared to have won in last November’s general election. Republicans still hold the Senate, creating a political divide that could make it harder for lawmakers to send priority bills to incoming Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The special election ended several months of electoral drama.
Republicans held a comfortable 113-90 majority in the House last year. But once-in-a-decade redistricting and strong showings in statewide races helped Democrats flip enough seats in the fall election to win a 102-101 majority in the House. Or so it seemed. Three of those Democratic seats quickly became vacant, creating uncertainty about who actually controlled the House.
Representative. Tony DeLuca died of cancer in October shortly before winning re-election, Rep. Summer Lee resigned after also winning congressional election, and Rep. Austin Davis resigned before being sworn in as lieutenant governor.
This left the Republicans with more people in the House than the Democrats and led to a political stalemate. The House elected Democratic Rep. Mark Rozzi as speaker at the start of the new session on Jan. 3, but only after Republican leaders and several other GOP members joined all Democrats in the vote.
The chamber has been frozen since Rozzi took over and has not adopted rules of procedure, appointed committee members or approved any legislation. Rozzi said last week that he wants to keep his speakership when Democrats meet with their newly elected officials.
At a press conference in Pittsburgh Tuesday night, Democratic leader Rep. Joanna McClinton said the three Democratic candidates were “thrown into the mixer very quickly” to compete in the special election.
He noted that Democrats have been in the minority in the House for 24 of the last 28 years.
McClinton wants to be the speaker, but said he doesn’t want to “get ahead of the next few days” because the election results are fully tabulated, asking people to “stay tuned to see what the will of this body is going to be.” when the Chamber returns to the voting session.
Minutes after McClinton finished speaking, the clerk’s office sent out an email notification that the House would resume in two weeks.
Democrats were expected to win Tuesday’s special election after easily winning the same seats last fall.
DeLuca’s former seat was won by Democrat Joe McAndrew, 32, a businessman who is a former Democratic state House staffer and former executive director of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee. Lee’s former seat was won by Abigail Salisbury, 40, an attorney and Democratic member of the Swissvale City Council. Matthew Gergely, a Democrat who works for McKeesport city government, was tapped to succeed Davis.
The special election came only after the courts rejected an attempt by House Republican leader Rep. Bryan Cutler to prevent two of the contests from being decided on Tuesday.
When newly elected MPs take office, the House could still be one member short of its full size. That’s because Republican Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver won the Jan. 31 special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat.
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