November 19th, 2008

Here’s who outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted their colleagues for House caucus leadership positions in yesterday’s elections.

Democrats

Speaker of the House: Current House Majority Whip Keith McCall (D-Carbon) was elected without opposition.

Majority Leader: Current House Majority Policy Chairman Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne) beat Majority Caucus Secretary Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny) to grab the post that Rep. Bill Deweese has held since 1990.

Democratic Whip:  Rep. Bill Deweese (D-Greene), who had stepped down from running for Leader, easily won a four way contest on the first ballot.

Caucus Secretary:  Rep Jen Mann (D-Lehigh) beat Rep. Tim Solobay (D-Washington) to become the first woman elected into caucus leadership in  years.

Majority Policy Chairman: Rep. Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) surprised many by beating Rep. Mike Gerber (D-Montgomery).

Caucus Chairman:  Rep. Mark Cohen (D-Philadelphia) was re-elected unanimously.

Caucus Administrator: Rep. Ron Buxton (D-Harrisburg) defeated Jake Wheatley (D-Pittsburgh).

Appropriations Chair: Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Phila.) maintained this position, unnopposed.

Republicans

Minority Leader: Current leader Sam Smith (R-Punxsutawney) beat out his former mentor John Perzel (R-Philadelphia). 

Perzel had been speaker until  2006 when he ran again, even though Democrats had won the House majority that year.  Thinking he had enough Democratic votes to carry him to the win, Perzel  was shocked when Democrats orchestrated a deal with Rep. Denny O’Brien (R-Philadelphia) to have 99 Democrats and 6 Republicans vote O’Brien into the Speakership. After this, Perzel’s caucus awarded him with the position of Speaker Emeritus, which granted him extra staff and leadership office space.  Needless to say, this ordeal created a Smith-Perzel split in the GOP caucus.  

But, yesterday after vote counters revealed that Smith had won, Perzel moved to make the count unanimous. Therefore, nobody knows how close the count was, although members believe it was fairly close.

Minority Whip:  Rep. Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) won without opposition.

Republican Policy Chairman:  Rep. Stan Saylor won a close race that took several hours and ballots to decide. 

Caucus Chairwoman: Sandra Major (R-Susquehanna) won unopposed.

Caucus Administrator:  Rep. Merle Phillips (R-Northumberland) won unopposed after Rep. Brian Ellis (R-Butler) dropped his bid in the afternoon.

Caucus Secretary: Rep. Jerry Stern (R-Blair) defeated challenger Rep. Ron Marsico (R-Dauphin).

Minority Approprations Chairman: Rep. Mario Civera (R-Delaware) maintained his post, beating Rep. John Maher (R-Allegheny).