PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Next week’s election promises to bring changes to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. What remains to be seen is exactly how many.
All 203 seats in the House are up for election next Tuesday. It’s the first election with the new legislative district maps. The maps are redrawn every 10 years based on population changes discovered in the U.S. Census.
“It will probably be a very closely divided House. Both parties, I think, have the opportunity to have a very narrow majority,” Democratic consultant Ben Forstate said. “Democrats are going to pick up seats just by virtue of seats moving from rural Pennsylvania to the southeast.”
Currently, Republicans hold a 113-88 majority, with two vacancies. Former Republican strategist John Kelemen says that 25-seat advantage will be trimmed.
“Both sides of the aisle seem to think the majority is going to be somewhere around seven to eight seats,” Kelemen said.
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He says a smaller overall majority will result in a smaller majority on committees. Right now, Republicans hold a 15-10 advantage on every committee, if that’s trimmed.
“If you have just one or two members of the majority on a specific committee that aren't comfortable with a piece of legislation, that could sidetrack or derail the movement of that legislation through the committee process and keep it from getting to the floor,” Keleman said.
Forstate says moderates on both sides are going to have a lot of power: “They're going to have a lot of control over what legislation gets passed, what legislation gets considered.”
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At least 30 House members are retiring, “which is why you're going to have one of the largest classes of freshmen in quite a long time,” noted Kelemen.
Three of the most competitive races are in the Philadelphia suburbs, where Republicans Tim Hennessey, Todd Stephens and Chris Quinn are looking to hold on to their seats.
In the state Senate, 25 of 50 seats are on the ballot. However, the new Senate maps don’t show much flux coming in the higher chamber.