According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Before the vote, chaos and confusion reigned in the lower chamber as both sides to tried to outmaneuver each other in order to maintain control of the House, where Democrats hold a one-vote majority. Several times, the House's chief clerk, who was presiding over the lower chamber until a new speaker was elected, had to consult a legislative manual to figure out whether such maneuvering was permitted under House rules.Six Republicans broke ranks with their leadership to vote for O'Brien: Reps. Kerry Benninghoff (R., Center), Jim Cox (R., Berks), Brad Roae (R., Crawford), Sam Rohrer (R., Berks), Curt Schroder (R., Chester) and David Steil (R., Bucks).
And the session was interrupted several times by hoots and jeers by members when they heard something they didn't like.
Three Democrats voted for Perzel: Reps. Thomas Caltagirone (D., Berks), Angel Cruz (D., Phila.) and Rosita Youngblood (D., Phila.)
There are rumors at Young Philly Politics that O'Brien will switch parties to become a Democrat but that's certainly not set in stone.
Stay tuned . . .
4 comments:
Huh. And here I was thinking, like most, that '07 was gonna be a sleeper compared to '06. Could still be the case but the new year's comin' on strong.
I possted this before, but I'll repeat it here. Nobody should be suprised by this...
It sounds like DeWeese (and perhaps Gov. Rendell) pulled a Willie Brown out of his hat. "Willie Brown," refers to when Democrats hung on to the California State Assembly in 1994 when Brown nominated a first-term Republican to be Speaker...Brown was technically just a member, but he was the power behind the throne.
That said, nobody should be surprised at this. DeWeese was dead wrong to strip members who voted against the pay raise of their committee assignments. It was a missed opportunity, and it contributed to the one-seat majority the Democrats have in Pennsylvania.
If Democrats had opposed the pay raise, there would be a 20 to 30 seat majority.
Dunno if I'd go as for as a 20 to 30 seat pickup but, yeah, it was a hellacious opportunity. The sad part was, is, that all DeWeese and Veon could think of is "hey, more $$$ for me!"
But there is a kind of poetic justice in the fact that both DeWeese and Perzel were the final victims of the pay raise.
Still, for our party it's a tradegy. DeWeese has some good ideas.
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