Democrat Mark Rozzi Elected Pa. House Speaker In An Unexpected Bipartisan Agreement

Democrat Mark Rozzi Elected Pa. House Speaker In An Unexpected Bipartisan Agreement.

Based on about a dozen Republican votes, a Democrat who pledged to lead as an independent was elected speaker of the closely divided Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday.

By a vote of 115-85, Rep. Mark Rozzi was chosen as speaker after Republicans failed to use their two-seat majority to pass a motion to keep control of the House.

Mark Rozzi is best known for being a champion of the drive to give victims of child sexual abuse a second chance to sue perpetrators or institutions that covered it up over claims currently barred by time limitations in the law. He began his sixth two-year term from a district in the Reading area this week.

Due to the closeness of the November election and the resignations of two other Democrats from Allegheny County, as well as the death of one, what is often a highly planned ceremony turned into an afternoon of drama and uncertainty.

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After spending more than a decade in the minority, Democrats gained a net of 12 seats in November, which was necessary to win control of the House, 102-101. But because state representative Tony DeLuca passed away from cancer a month before being re-elected, representative Summer Lee resigned to join Congress, and usual Austin Davis resigned before becoming lieutenant governor, Republicans now have a 101-99 advantage.

Josh Shapiro, a Democrat running for governor, and Rep. Jim Gregory, a conservative Republican who nominated Shapiro, collaborated closely to push for the lawsuit window after Shapiro’s predecessor as attorney general released a historic grand jury report on his office’s investigation into the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses.

Gregory, a Blair County resident, claimed that he and Mark Rozzi had discussed such a possibility for months but had not brought it up until Tuesday afternoon when Gregory phoned House Republican leaders and urged them to get in touch with Mark Rozzi.

The window for lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse has not been implemented. But if a constitutional amendment is submitted by Rozzi and others and is approved by both chambers once more over the next two years, it will be put to the vote.

First post-speaker-election presser with House Dems, and first time we’ll hear from the chamber’s newly elected speaker (and now self-described independent) Mark Rozzi. https://t.co/9kmglLK7M9

— Katie Meyer (@katieemeyer4) January 4, 2023

Mark Rozzi had spoken publicly about being raped when he was 13 by a Catholic priest.

Mark Rozzi declared that he would be independent, promising not to caucus with either the Republicans or the Democrats and to appoint people from both parties to his office. Never has this House been more split, he remarked, criticizing dysfunction and obstruction in the politics of the body.

It was unclear at first if he would modify his voter registration.

In his remarks, Rozzi stated, “I promise allegiance and fidelity to the people of the Commonwealth; I vow my commitment to no interest in this building, to no interest in our politics.”

Mark Rozzi turned to the legislator after taking the oath of office and inquired, “All right, what do we do?”

Democrats wanted to make Philadelphia Rep. Joanna McClinton the state’s first female speaker, but since the chamber was so close, they could not postpone the proceedings for seven weeks. The Democrats would have had enough time to fill three open seats if that had succeeded.

Instead, Rozzi defeated Rep. Carl Walker Metzgar, R-Somerset, who ran against him and got 85 votes.

Several leaders and their floor leader, Rep. Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County, who filed a lawsuit to postpone the special elections to fill the Lee and Davis seats until May, were among the 16 votes from the GOP caucus.

For voters to choose DeLuca’s replacement on February 7, McClinton has pushed to schedule those elections on that day.

When every seat is filled, and Democrats hold onto the three open seats, Rozzi’s independent vote would tie the House at 101-101. Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver, R-Northumberland, is a Republican competing for a relaxed state Senate seat, which could soon result in a GOP vacancy.

Due to retirements and incumbent defeats brought on in part by redistricting after the 2020 census, the House now has nearly a quarter of newly elected members.

Kim Ward, a Republican from Westmoreland County, was chosen to preside over the Senate as its president pro tempore. She was selected for the position by her fellow Republicans, who control the Senate with a majority of 28 to 22, making her the first woman to occupy it.

Ward will be replaced as majority leader by Sen. Joe Pittman, a Republican from Indiana. Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, the former president pro tempore of the Senate, decided not to run for reelection to participate in the gubernatorial primary, but he was unsuccessful.