PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than a month after the midterm elections, Pennsylvanians still do not know who is in control of the House of Representatives.
Both Democrats and Republicans are separately claiming they are in the majority.
It is up to the Commonwealth Courts to decide and, while both sides claim the decision is obvious, recent unfoldings suggest otherwise.
Democrats won 102 of the 203 House seats in last month’s election, giving them a one-seat majority, but former state Rep. Anthony DeLuca died right before the election, before his name could be taken off the ballot.
The Legislative Reference Bureau says prior case law indicates that seat cannot be counted if that member is not alive.
Two state Reps. Austin Davis and Summer Lee resigned as they won higher office.
Related
Davis resigned to become Lieutenant Governor, and Lee resigned because she won a seat in Congress.
Democratic leader Joanna McClinton scheduled special elections for those two seats on Feb. 7, 2023, but Republican leader Bryan Cutler said only the majority leader can schedule elections and filed for them to be in May, on Primary Election Day.
Cutler says the special elections couldn’t be scheduled until the two Democratic members resigned, adding that their resigning put the Democrats in the minority.
“The one thing that cannot be argued is from a minority because addition of 99 members, you do not have the legal authority to issue a writ when there's a majority party at 101,” Cutler said.
Related
Democrat Malcolm Kenyatta feels the Republicans are purposely stalling with the delayed election to cling to power.
“This is a travesty. This is a continuation of this anti-Democratic agenda that we're seeing from House Republicans.”
“They want them to be held as late as possible, giving Republicans a mirage majority in the State House,” Kenyatta said.
Related
In rebuttal, Cutler says, logically, there is no way the Democrats could be in a majority position to set the election dates.
“You cannot write the writs until the vacancies are real. And, once the vacancies are real, you're in a position then that you're now in the minority position.”
Cutler says having the election on Primary Day saves the county money and creates less confusion for voters.
Democrats say Republicans are clinging to the false majority in hopes of slamming through a Constitutional Amendment ballot question that would affect abortion access in Pa.
However, in a Friday court filing, Pa.’s statewide elections agency said it's moving ahead with plans for special elections in February to fill three state House vacancies unless a court orders otherwise.