December 15 – Three special election seats are still up in the air for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives next year.
Here’s why:
Representative Summer Lee has been elected to the US House of Representatives, so she will no longer serve in the PA House. Representative Austin Davis was voted in as lieutenant governor for Pennsylvania because he ran with Josh Shapiro, so he will no longer serve in the House.
Representative Anthony DeLuca died of cancer on October 9. He was already on the ballot, so his name couldn’t be removed. He was voted in by an 86 percent majority in November.
A number of Republicans had hoped Carrie DelRosso, State Senator Doug Mastriano’s running mate for governor, would take up the campaign for DeLuca’s seat in anticipation of giving Republicans control.
Yesterday, DelRosso announced she will not run for that election.
Last week, Democrat Representative Joanna McClinton had a judge swear her in as presiding officer of the PA House of Representatives – pretty much apropos of nothing.
Representative Rob Kauffman said, “Immediately after that, two of her members resigned. She attempted to issue a special election, but at that point, as soon as she declared herself presiding officer and two people resigned, she was no longer presiding officer because they were in the minority. She attempted to issue these writs of election. There is a lawsuit going on currently to attempt to invalidate those writs of election because she was not officially presiding officer. So there’s a court battle ensuing there.”
One of the writs of election that will be valid is the special election on February 7 for DeLuca’s seat.
Kauffman said, “We were hoping that Carrie DelRosso will be the candidate. It turns out she will not be. I am told there are other candidates waiting in the wings. I don’t know them. I can’t speak to them. Frankly, I was very disappointed and don’t know really what’s going to happen there now, but it is a disappointment because she was our best shot I believe at keeping that seat. What I will say that when you’re in a situation where either or holds the majority by one seat, that can change very quickly. I would not call anything a done deal, whether it be on swearing in day or afterwards. There are several Democrats in heavy Trump districts that could easily be put off if the Democrats decide to do the far-left thing off the rails, which they can’t help themselves. I’m just not at the point where I’m like, okay, close up shop, it’s over, but we definitely have a very difficult road ahead of us.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM said, “I’m glad that you said it that way. Thank you for doing so. As I was thinking about the Alexander Haig moment of McClinton there, I thought we’ve got the cinema factor happening on a national level, you start looking at some of these Democrats that will shake their head and go what exactly is a Josh Shapiro going to bring to the state – Red Flag laws. It was Joe Manchin who said if you’re listening to your constituents then you should see some glimmer of hope out of Pennsylvania. I like your optimism here.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM said, “You might be critical that the Republicans are pushing back because after all, they both scheduled special elections on the same date, February 7, but you can’t let somebody, exactly what you said, if you let her get away with this, and people say oh, we’re going to waste taxpayer money. Yeah, we are, I’m afraid, but at the same time, you can’t just let people break the law.”
Kauffman said, “There is an orderly transition. There is a constitution. There are House rules. There are processes that take place in this republic and unfortunately I believe when these folks shout democracy, democracy, democracy, their intent is to jettison any order whether it be the constitution, whether it be election law, whether it be rules in which the House has operated for generations, they want to jettison those and rule by their mob. We just can’t allow that to happen.”
