HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio, AP) — Delaware County Rep. Mike Zabel announced his resignation, hours after a colleague in the House joined other women in publicly accusing him of sexual harassment. The Democrat sent a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Joanna McClinton saying he will resign his seat effective March 16.
Service Employees International Union lobbyist Andi Perez first accused Zabel of sexual harassment during a hearing in January held by then-Speaker Mark Rozzi. Perez didn’t name Zabel until last week. She said Zabel caressed her leg while they were discussing legislation outside the Capitol, and she said he did not stop when she moved away from him.
Pa. Rep. Abby Major among Zabel's accusers
Shortly before Zabel sent his resignation letter, State Rep. Abby Major, a second-term Republican from Armstrong County, announced Wednesday at a press conference for International Women's Day that Zabel sexually harassed her in November while they were at a bar with colleagues.
Major said when Zabel approached her at a “local establishment” in Harrisburg, they barely knew each other outside of a few work-related conversations. She described the interaction:
“In 2022, I lost over 50 pounds. And on this particular evening, Rep. Zabel and I were standing near each other at the bar. I was attempting to pay my tab when he began to tell me how fantastic I looked, how he could really tell that I lost a lot of weight, and that I just looked great. I told him, ‘Thank you.’ But he continued pressing the issue, eventually putting his arm around me and touching my back,” she said.
“He was clearly intoxicated. His lips and teeth were stained red from wine,” Major said.
“He then asked me if I wanted to get out of here and go upstairs," Major said. She said she wasn’t interested, and she recalled another male colleague making eye contact with her, giving her an escape. She told the colleague that Zabel had propositioned her and “was being a creep."
“Maybe you didn't even realize what you were doing, that you were helping me, but it was a lifeline I needed at that moment,” she said during her announcement Wednesday. It is unclear who she was addressing.
Then, as another colleague walked her to her car that November night, she said, she was “stunned” to see Zabel following behind them.
“To the men listening to this, you will never understand the feeling of a man touching you, following you, making you feel incredibly unsafe and being able to do nothing about it,” she said.
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Major said other women — some who do not want to speak publicly — have told her similar stories about Zabel. Zabel’s former campaign manager Colleen Kennedy has also spoken publicly about similar experiences with the representative.
“I felt disgusted and sick about their stories, especially in conjunction with mine,” Major said. “It's showing a clear pattern.”
What's next for Zabel
His decision to resign was a reversal from Friday, when he told Democratic House leaders that he was stepping away from his duties on the Judiciary Committee, but not quitting, as he struggles with an alcohol addiction.
“The toll is just too great on my family, and was too detrimental to my well-being. I need to focus on what matters,” Zabel said during a brief phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, shortly before sending the resignation letter.
McClinton and other Democratic leaders soon afterward issued a statement saying he had “chosen to do what is best for his family, the people he represents, and the state House of Representatives.”
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“Allegations of this nature are impossible to litigate in a public forum,” Zabel wrote in a text following his phone conversation with the AP. “It was always my intention to go through the Ethics Committee process and defend myself there. At this point, though, I am unwilling to put my loved ones through any more of this.”
Zabel said in the letter to Democratic leaders last week that he was “very mindful of and saddened by the sensitive and disturbing allegations against me.”
“My illness has caused some behavior that I regret, and I agree that additional intervention is necessary for me to fully recover,” Zabel wrote last week. “I am in the process of securing additional intensive treatment, beyond the outpatient treatment I have been receiving, and am currently working with my health care providers and my family to identify an appropriate inpatient program which I will be entering as soon as possible.”
Democrats still the House majority party
According to a spokeswoman, the House Democratic caucus will keep Zabel’s district offices open to make sure residents have access to state services.
Following Zabel’s resignation, Democrats will still hold a 101-100 majority in the House.
To fill the vacated seat, a special election must now be scheduled no sooner than 60 days after the resignation, and no later than 180 days.
There is currently one other vacancy in the closely divided state House, where Democrats flipped control of the chamber in November after 12 years in the minority. A special election for the vacancy, a heavily Republican district in central Pennsylvania, was scheduled by McClinton on Tuesday for the May 16 primary, which will fall within that 60- to 180-day window.
Zabel, a lawyer first elected in 2018, is married. He voted last week for a package of 2023-24 session chamber rules that, among other things, greatly expanded who can file complaints about lawmakers through the House Ethics Committee.
The AP found that since 2017, at least 120 state lawmakers in 41 states have faced public allegations of sexual misconduct or harassment. Most of the allegations were made after the #MeToo movement sparked a public reckoning for people in power accused of sexual wrongdoing.