[ Because In Politics Everything Is Connected To Everything Else ] The House Republicans last week began to move key items on their legislative agenda out of committee, including six proposed amendments to the state constitution, while the Senate was still appointing committee chairs.
Gov. Wolf, and Democratic House and Senate leaders, pressed Republicans for action on a $145 million aid package to businesses affected by COVID he proposed in December.
UPDATE: Sen. Arnold Passes
State Sen. David Arnold (R-Lebanon) passed away Sunday at the age of 49, ending a 15-month battle with brain cancer. Read more here.
He is the second state legislator to die this year. Rep. Mike Reese (R-Westmoreland) died January 2 of a brain aneurysm. He was diagnosed with COVID in December.
House Fireworks
House Republicans opened their first full week of voting session by moving legislation to make six different changes to the state’s constitution, but only one of the five bills that included the amendments-- House Bill 14 (Gregory-R-Blair) to open a two-year window for child sexual abuse lawsuits-- was reported out of the House State Government Committee WITHOUT a party-line vote. Read more here.
Especially controversial were the constitutional amendments to elect state appeals court judges by individual voting districts-- House Bill 38 (Diamond-R-Lebanon)-- and House Bill 55 (Grove-R-York) requiring 253 House and Senate members to agree on approving an extension of a Governor’s emergency proclamation after it was in place 21 days.
Both constitutional amendments are Republican attempts to gain more unilateral control over the Judicial and Executive branches of state government.
A wide variety of groups oppose electing judges by districts, from Fair Districts PA, the PA League of Women Voters, to the state Bar Association, and a broad range of civil and individual rights groups.
It was reported out of committee with a one-vote margin. Read more here.
Republicans, who were upset over several election-related rulings by the PA Supreme Court, said electing judges by districts would bring much-needed “geographic diversity” to the courts and different perspectives from outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh where many of the current judges hail from.
Opponents said it would not only present another opportunity for gerrymandering, but would completely politicize the courts making judges beholden to their local “constituents” to get elected at a time the state should be moving to merit selection of judges.
Republicans and Democrats also clashed on the amendment to require legislative approval to extend an emergency declaration, with Republicans saying they needed to reign in the authority of the Governor based on how he handled the COVID pandemic. Read more here.
Democrats said it would do nothing but politicize responding to an emergency and at worst hamstring the ability of state and local governments to protect the health and safety of the public, while 253 Senate and House members debate whether there is an emergency or not.
If approved by the Senate and House this session, both these amendments-- judicial elections and extending emergency declarations-- could go to voters as early as the May Primary election because this is the second time they would have passed the General Assembly.
Three other constitutional amendments would put a cap on state government spending-- House Bill 71 (Warner-R-Fayette); addressed how surplus tax revenue is handled-- House Bill 51 (O’Neal-R-Washington); and adds protections against discrimination for race and ethnicity (but not sexual orientation) as part of House Bill 55 (Grove-R-York).
Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon) said several times during the committee meeting on all six amendments to the constitution he “trusts the people to make the decision” on these issues, which is ironic because he and other House Republicans worked and are still working tirelessly to overturn the popular vote in the November Presidential election.
No action by Gov. Wolf stands in the way of getting measures like these on the ballot, one of the advantages Republicans see in using constitutional amendments. Expect to see more initiatives to “Christmas tree” the constitution with all sorts of “ornaments” as legislators often do with legislation.
Reviewing Nov. Election
House Republicans and Democrats both announced plans to review how the November election was conducted, but from much different perspectives.
On January 21, House Republicans scheduled the first of an expected 14 hearings by the House State Government Committee to start their review of the election. The topic of this hearing is advertised as Department of State guidance to counties prior to the election.
A report issued by Majority Committee Chair Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) in late November called the guidance issued by the agency conflicting and confusing for counties which led to differences in how counties held the elections. Read more here.
BTW, federal prosecutors decided not to file charges on the much-publicized case of nine mail-in ballots discovered in a Luzerne County courthouse dumpster saying there was insufficient evidence of criminal intent. The ballots were counted with all the others. Read more here.
The U.S. Supreme Court last week denied a request to fast-track hearing legal challenges by PA Republican Congressman Kelly to throw out Pennsylvania’s entire mail-in voting law. Read more here.
In a January 14 press conference, House Democrats demanded Republicans in the General Assembly be held accountable for their actions that led up to the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Read more here.
“What we saw last week was nothing short of an attempted coup, instigated not only by the president of the United States but by Republican enablers at all levels of government,” Democrats said.
“Words matter, and the falsehoods, misrepresentations and seditious rantings we’ve heard from some Republican members of the General Assembly can’t go unchallenged. Our nation can’t heal without consequences for the first invasion of the United States Capitol since the War of 1812.”
On January 19, the House Democratic Policy Committee will hold a “Defending Democracy” hearing to provide a “bipartisan group of testifiers on their 2020 election experience and what legislative action they may need to protect future elections from misinformation campaigns and to continue to maintain election security.”
Democrats promise it will be “one in a series addressing the false allegations of election fraud that culminated in the seditious and deadly attack on our nation’s Capitol by insurgent groups.” Read more here.
Click Here for NewsClips on Pennsylvania’s Role In The Assault On The U.S. Capitol.
Election Recommendations
On January 14, the County Commissioners Association of PA released a bipartisan preliminary report and recommendations outlining county priorities for further Election Code reforms, and strongly urged the General Assembly and the Wolf Administration to work together closely with counties to create positive, effective election policy. Read more here.
Counties are renewing their call to allow additional time to pre-canvass mail-in ballots, and to move the deadline for mail-in ballot applications back to 15 days prior to an election in conjunction with the voter registration deadline.
Counties are trying hard to stay out of the hyper partisan crossfire on this issue.
PA Fallout From Assault On U.S. Capitol
Major companies in Pennsylvania like PPL, Crayola, Air Products, Comcast, Blue Cross Blue Shield and groups like the PA Chamber of Business and Industry are said to be reevaluating their political contributions to Republican members of Congress who undermined democracy by supporting baseless claims of voter fraud in the November election after the assault on the U.S. Capitol. Read more here.
At this point, it isn’t known if those evaluations will extend to state lawmakers who did the same thing and laid the groundwork for the Congressional counterparts to take the actions they did. Read more here.
On January 6, the same day as the assault on the U.S. Capitol, 21 Senate Republican leaders wrote to Republican members of Congress urging them to challenge Pennsylvania’s electoral votes for Joe Biden citing unspecified “unlawful violations” and “questionable activities.” Read more here.
House Republicans earlier issued a similar call to members of Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation to dispute the votes. Read more here.
There have been editorial calls for each of the PA Republican members of Congress to resign after their actions to challenge the November election results.
Click Here for an NBC News report on the role played by PA Republican lawmakers-- state and federal-- in challenging the election results.
There were also media reports around the state last week about hundreds of Republican voters switching their voter registrations in response to the assault on the U.S. Capitol and its aftermath [Read more here], although in Westmoreland County some Democrats were going the other way [Read more here].
NewsClips:
-- Cap-Star: Assault On U.S. Capitol Lays Bare Republican Electoral Misinformation In Harrisburg
-- NBC: PA Republican Lawmakers Fostered False Election Allegations That Fueled Assault On U.S. Capitol
-- These Are The 90+ Elected Officials From PA Who Supported Challenges To Biden’s Win
-- Deb Erdley: PA Republicans Weigh The Party’s Future Post-Trump
-- Post: ‘Trump Said To Do So’: Accounts Of Rioters Who Say The President Spurred Them To Rush The Capitol Could Be Pivotal Testimony [PA Man Arrested]
-- Letter: Why I Can No Longer Be A Republican [Lancaster County]
-- Op-Ed: How To Rescue The Republican Party From Trump's Chaos - By Charlie Dent, Former Republican Member of Congress from the Lehigh Valley
Click Here for NewsClips on Pennsylvania’s Role In The Assault On The U.S. Capitol.
Next Political Battle
Sometime in March, numbers from the 2020 U.S. Census will kick off what one media article last week called “the definitive political fight of 2021”-- re-drawing the voting districts for the House, Senate and members of Congress in Pennsylvania.
Spotlight PA last week did a good tutorial for those interested in how redistricting will play out between a Republican Senate-House appointed Reapportionment Commission, Gov. Wolf and the PA Supreme Court, all of which will have a role in this next political drama. Read more here.
Good government groups like Fair Districts PA, the PA League of Women Voters and others are advocating for a more citizen-centric process for redrawing districts, but that has not yet developed.
Recall in 2018 the Democrat-heavy PA Supreme Court struck down the state’s Republican gerrymandered Congressional district map that favored Republicans and actually redrew the boundaries. The result was an even split-- Republican and Democrat in today’s delegation. Read more here.
Pennsylvania is expected to lose one Congressional seat as a result of the Census numbers so that will make the game more interesting.
Much the same fight is likely to happen this year with Republicans controlling the Reapportionment Commission and the Democrats controlling the PA Supreme Court.
That’s one of the other reasons Republicans are pushing hard for a constitutional amendment to elect state appellate court judges by districts-- to get their own people on these courts in the long run.
Stay tuned.
Last Senator
Speaking of elections, the last legislative election from November was declared over-- again-- last week when Sen. Jim Brewster (D-Allegheny) was sworn into office after a federal court ruled against mail-in ballot challenges brought by his Republican opponent. Read more here.
After Senate Republicans refused to swear in Sen. Brewster last week, even though his election votes were officially certified, Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) took the opportunity to officially welcome Sen. Brewster back to the Senate. Read more here.
House Special Election
House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R-Lancater) last week set May 18-- the Primary Election-- as the date for a special election to fill the House seat of the late Rep. Mike Reese (R-Westmoreland). Read more here.
$145M Between Friends
On January 14, Gov. Wolf and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House called on Republicans to take action to distribute $145 million they said is waiting to provide state-funded aid to small businesses impacted by COVID. Read more here.
Wolf first proposed the $145 million aid package two days before Christmans when the Senate and House were not organized for the new session. The House just named committee members and the Senate committee chairs last week.
House Republicans said in reaction if it wasn’t for Gov. Wolf closing and limiting business operations [due to COVID], they wouldn’t be in the bad shape they are now and added they haven’t heard from the Governor personally on the issue-- “Our phone lines are working.” Read more here.
Republicans also said just “cutting checks” wasn’t the answer. Read more here.
On January 12, House Republicans formed a task force to develop an economic recovery plan for the state they said would be heavy on getting rid of regulations they view as holding back businesses. Read more here.
$2.2 Billion Aid To Schools
On January 15, Gov. Wolf announced he will be distributing $2.2 billion in aid to K-12 schools and private charter schools from the latest federal COVID relief package to support food programs, technological improvements and other education services at local schools. Read more here.
The day before this announcement, the PA Association of School Business Officials issued a report projecting a $475 million increase in tuition costs they have to pay to private charter schools as a result of parents seeking alternative ways to educate their children during the pandemic. Read more here.
Biden COVID/Stimulus Plan
On January 14, President-elect Biden unveiled a proposed $1.9 trillion COVID - economic stimulus plan designed to support COVID pandemic response efforts and help the U.S. economy recover. Read more here.
The plan calls for $170 billion in aid to K-12 schools as well as $350 billion in emergency funding for state and local governments, both of which would help ease what will be a very difficult budget year in Pennsylvania’s. Read more here.
Click Here for Biden’s remarks announcing the Plan.
Passage of the plan is far from certain, however. Republicans have favored more target aid and outright opposed state and local aid.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) called the package ‘a colossal waste and economically harmful.” Read more here.
Slow Vaccine Distribution
The Department of Health was scrambling last week to find ways to speed up getting COVID vaccines into many more arms.
The scramble was set off on January 12, when the feds suddenly updated their guidance to states to speed vaccinations for people 65 or older with underlying health risks much sooner than originally planned. Read more here.
That set off a chain reaction that resulted in a promise by Gov. Wolf to release yet another revised vaccination plan this week.. He had characterized the state’s response earlier in the week as “phenomenal,'' when data clearly showed the state was behind. Read more here.
Locally across the state, hospitals and health departments in the Lehigh Valley, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other areas began to release plans for expanding vaccinations and locating mass vaccination sites.
The Department of Health launched a plan to allow pharmacies across the state to administer vaccinations [Read more here] and made available a map showing where to find COVID vaccine providers [Read more here].
It is also developing a webpage where people can register for a time and location to get vaccinated [Read more here]. Philadelphia already has a pre-registration webpage for vaccinations. Read more here.
Meanwhile, House Republicans put out a release last Monday saying they did not want elected and appointed state officials to get any special priority for getting the COVID vaccine. Read more here.
Complying Or Not?
On January 12, the Department of Community and Economic Development announced a new COVID Inspection Dashboard which provides the public with the current status of COVID compliance for licensed bars and restaurants in the state. Read more here.
The new webpage is designed to complement the Open & Certified Restaurants webpage that tells the public which eateries have certified themselves as being in compliance with COVID requirements.
Philly Reopening, Some
Restaurants in Philadelphia can now resume indoor dining, but at 25 percent of their approved capacity, but they limit patrons to no more than four people at a table and they all must be from the same household. Read more here.
COVID-19 Record Death Toll
The number of cases per day and rate of hospitalizations for COVID generally declined last week, while the number of deaths came close to single-day records several times.
The total number of deaths from COVID-19 increased from 17,394 on January 8 to 19,188 on January 16. The number of people testing positive for the virus went from 703,265 on January 8 to 761,777 on January 16.
Two more House members announced they tested positive for COVID last week-- Rep. Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery), Minority Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin). Both said they are experiencing mild symptoms.
A total of 14 House and Senate members have now tested positive for COVID.
Unemployment
The Department of Labor and Industry reported 41,424 claims for unemployment compensation between January 2 and 9, up 2,912 from last week’s 38,512. Read more here.
Biden Picks From PA
Several people named to the Biden Administration last week have Pennsylvania ties--
-- William J. Burns, CIA Director, has Carlisle roots. Read more here.
-- Maria Zuber named Co-Chair Of Science Council. Read more here.
-- Laura Rosenberg, China Policy, is a Pittsburgh native. Read more here.
-- Michael LaRose, spokesperson for First Lady Jill Biden is an Easton native. Read more here.
-- Virginia McGregor from Scranton will be DNC Treasurer. Read more here.
PA Capitol Security
Reacting to warnings from the FBI about the potential of protests by pro-Trump supporters and extremists around the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Gov. Wolf closed state buildings and beefed up security at the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg and activated more PA National Guard troops to supplement police forces. Read more here.
Pennsylvania has also provided approximately 2,000 PA National Guard troops supporting security operations in Washington, D.C. surrounding the inauguration.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Centre) announced Friday Senate district and Harrisburg offices would be working remotely from January 16 to 20 and their physical offices would be closed.
Local governments are also taking steps to guard public buildings around the state. Read more here.
So far, four Pennsylvania residents are facing criminal charges from the U.S. Department of Justice for their role on the assault on the U.S. Capitol. Read more here.
The charges include an ex-firefighter from Delaware County who allegedly struck U.S. Capitol Police Officers with a fire extinguisher. Read more here.
Click Here for NewsClips on security preparations.
Record Gun Sales
The PA State Police reported last week its background check system for individuals buying guns hit a new record in the fourth quarter of 2020-- 420,581 checks, versus 272,901 background checks in the fourth quarter of 2019. Read more here.
The previous record was in the third quarter of 2020 at 406,151 background checks. There was a 47 percent increase in background checks in 2020, over 2019.
Pennsylvania gun shop owners are reporting major increases in sales-- some reported selling close to $20,000 in guns a day-- and having a hard time keeping guns and ammunition in stock. Read more here.
Next Election
For those looking forward to the 2022 elections several news items--
-- Daniel J. Hilferty, former CEO of Independent Health Group, said he is exploring the possibility of running for the Republican nomination for Governor. Read more here.
-- Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) said he is exploring a run for the U.S. Senate. Read more here.
-- Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) is continuing his exploration of a U.S. Senate race by saying the Republican U.S. Senator behind the challenge to Joe Biden’s election is “Dipped In Dogsh*t” [Read more here] and is selling “My Dude In Forty Fort” t-shirts to raise campaign money based on the Luzerne County voting fraud case [Read more here].
What’s Next?
The House and Senate won’t return to voting session until the week of January 25 in order to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day on January 18.
For those who are interested: Click Here for the list of House committee members.
Senate Republicans and Democrats named their Majority and Minority committee chairs, and in the case of Democrats their committee members, so they may be ready to start moving legislation soon.
NewsClips:
Click Here For A Week’s Worth Of Political NewsClips
Click Here For PA Coronavirus NewsClips
Click Here For A Week’s Worth Of Environment & Energy NewsClips
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[Posted: January 17, 2021]
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