Democrats Flip Pennsylvania House Too!

Lame-duck GOP majority may still launch nukes at New Jersey.

For the first time in a dozen years, Democrats have won control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, winning at least one of the two seats where votes were still being counted after last week's general election. The incumbent Republican in the state's 151st District, Rep Todd Stephens, lost by just 59 votes to his Democratic challenger, Melissa Cerrato. Stephens conceded Thursday, and now Democrats hold 102 seats in the 203-member House, with the results in the remaining race still not decided.

In that race, for the 142nd District in Bucks County, Republican Joe Hogan has a 53-vote lead over Democrat Mark Moffa; the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the only remaining ballots "are those that either side has indicated they might challenge in court." Nuts, huh?

As we noted earlier this week , even Pennsylvania Democrats were surprised to pick up 12 seats this year, erasing what had been a 23-seat Republican majority in the House. Dems beat four GOP incumbents, took over four open seats previously held by Republicans who retired, and also won in three newly created districts, so as in Michigan, hooray for fairer electoral maps!

Read More!

 Democrats In Ur State Legislatures, Flippin' Ur Houses. And Senates. 

 Michigan Unf*cks Its Maps And Democracy Happens 

Democratic turnout was probably helped by the crappy candidates at the top of the ticket, New Jersey resident Dr. Oz, who ran for the US Senate, and creepy rightwing election denier Doug Mastriano, who lost the governor's race to Democratic AG Josh Shapiro. Even with Democrats taking the House, getting legislation passed will require a lot of negotiations, since the state Senate remains in Republican control.

And as the Inkwire points out, even with the one-seat House majority Democrats might face "an immediate stalemate" in January when the new legislature is sworn in. Democratic state Rep. Tony DeLuca died before the election but was reelected because the ballots were already printed, and

two Allegheny County Democrats were elected to higher office — Rep. Summer Lee won a seat in Congress and Rep. Austin Davis is the lieutenant governor-elect — setting up a potentially messy few months in Harrisburg as the parties wrangle over power.

Even if Democrats have won 102 seats, they would have only 99 sitting members once Lee and Davis resign — fewer than Republicans’ 101 members.

It will take a while for the special elections to fill those seats, even if all three of the vacancies are won by Democrats. Also too, once the majority-Democratic House is seated, current Minority Leader Joanna McClinton will become the state's first female speaker of the House, which would be a very big deal indeed.

Being in charge will allow Democrats to partner with Shapiro to pass legislation, and to prevent any more mischief of the kind that Republicans have pursued to evade vetoes from the state's current Democratic governor, Tom Wolf. The Inquirer explains that tactic:

Democrats said control would allow them to both advance their own agenda and block GOP efforts to legislate by passing amendments to the state constitution, which must be approved by voters but cannot be vetoed. Republicans have proposed dozens of amendments in the last two years related to spending, elections, executive power, and abortion access. 

God. They're just such jerks.

Speaking of which, as a fuck-you on the way out the door, the Republican-led lame-duck Pennsylvania House voted 107-85 on Wednesday to impeach Philadelphia's elected District Attorney Larry Krasner , to punish him for being a Democrat who has enacted progressive criminal justice reforms. As WHYY explains, it's entirely a show of political power. Krasner isn't accused of any crime, and he was reelected by Philadelphia voters. But he just really pisses off Republicans, who

argued that he should be removed from office for various reasons, including his failure to prosecute some minor crimes and his bail request policies, his staff oversight and reports that his office didn’t adequately notify crime victims about certain matters. They also alleged that Krasner obstructed the House’s investigation of his office.

Krasner said in a statement that the vote was the only time the state House has ever “used the drastic remedy of impeachment of an elected official because they do not like their ideas.”

“They have impeached me without presenting a single shred of evidence connecting our policies to any uptick in crime,” he said.

Krasner will be tried by the state Senate, which doesn't have enough Republican members for the two-thirds vote needed to convict and remove him from office. The current GOP majority is 29-21; if the trial waits until the new legislative session, that'll change to a 28-22 majority. As far as we know, no Democrats have shown any enthusiasm for railroading Krasner.

[ WHYY / Philadelphia Inquirer / WHYY / Photo:  Laslo Varga, Creative Commons License 4.0 ]

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