Madison Kwiecinski – Editor-in-Chief

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

During the November 8 elections, Pennsylvania democrats won 102 out of the 203 seats in the PA House, which should have secured the Democratic party’s majority in the legislature. However, Rep. Anthony DeLuca passed away shortly before the election, meaning his name remained on the ballot on election day. A special election will need to be held to fill the 32nd House seat ,previously held by DeLuca, early next year. 

Additionally Austin Davis’ seat will be up for election soon as he moves into the role of Lieutenant Governor, and Summer Lee’s seat will be vacant as well as she moves into her Congressional role. However, the protocol on calling elections for their seat will be slightly different, as it does not qualify for special elections in the same way. 

DeLuca’s previous seat will need to have a special election early on in the next legislative session, because the vacant seat has led to a highly divisive House in PA. Since Republicans hold 101 seats and although Democrats technically hold 102, one of which is DeLucas which means the two parties are essentially at a draw. 

Due to these incredibly close results, the two parties are fighting about who currently has control of the legislature. Republicans are holding that since they had control in the previous legislature and no party has a majority that the power still lies with them, while Democrats are holding that they won the majority in the election and therefore they have the majority now that the previous year’s legislative session has expired. 

The party with the majority moving into filling the seat has a few clear advantages. For example, the leading party presides over and runs the body, calls the special elections in order to fill the vacancies, and picks who leads the chamber in January. 

Democrats held a press conference on Thursday Nov. 29 to claim they were now in control since their party won a majority of the seats. They waited until this date because it was the first day of the new two-year session, meaning the previous Legislative session had expired at midnight the night prior. 

The Democratic front runner for speaker, leader Joanna McClinton has described the situation as precarious, though she is hopeful Republicans will accept the democratic win and “ceded their votes” to her for speaker on Jan 3. If McClinton is elected she would be the first woman to ever hold the gavel in Pennsylvania.

“There is no clear majority,” said Brain Cutler, the GOP’s outgoing speaker. “And in order to effectuate anything prior to Jan. 3, you have to have a majority and a minority, and we don’t have that.” 

The hottest contested issue so far between the parties has been regarding who actually has the power to schedule special elections. On the last day of Cutler’s term as speaker, he filed to hold the special election Feb. 7, 2023, saying it is important to hold the election as soon as possible. McClinton agreed with him that it should be held quickly, but also said Cutler had no authority to be the one to call for it. McClinto said the role should have fallen to her instead, as “Majority Leader and Acting Speaker.” 

The two seats occupied by Davis and Lee who are ascending to higher office are not technically vacant yet, and will be only when they vacate the seat to take office. However, when they resign determines when elections to replace them may be held. 

Elections must take place at least 60 days after they are called for, giving people time to prepare. Therefore, if Davis and Lee resign in December the elections can be held in February, but otherwise they must wait until March or perhaps even later. However, if they resign sooner than Jan. 3 they will not have enough Democratic votes to make McClinton speaker if Republicans chose to fight that and elect one of their own to the speakership role. 

Also, if Republicans manage to flip any one of the three seats that will need special elections next year then the Democrats lose their majority and this whole battle for control is void. It is worth pointing out, however, that this is unlikely as all three of the seats are in heavily blue areas historically. 

That being said, a Green Party candidate plans to run again for DeLucas previous seat in the thirty-second district. This could possibly alter the balance of the votes, though he did also run against DeLuca on the ballot this time and lost. Penn Hills Mayor seems to be the frontrunner as the democratic candidate for the seat. 

Republicans in PA seem to be very frustrated by McClinto referring to herself as “Acting Speaker” as this is not a term that has been previously utilized anywhere, nor does it appear in the Constitution. Cutler called it completely inappropriate,” though it makes sense he would oppose it as he would like to de facto hold that position himself. McClinton says she is aware the term itself is unprecedented, but it has historically been precedent that the majority leader takes over the duties of the Speaker in their absence. 

This will be an interesting legislative session to watch, as the precedent we are following is still unclear. If every member shows up on Jan. 3, it will leave both parties with a dead tie on swearing in day and could lead to even more controversy.