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Sturla to Challenge Dermody for House Dems Leadership

Mike-SturlaThe election may be over but that doesn’t mean the campaigning has stopped.

In fact, for many legislators it’s just begun.

Yet another leadership battle is brewing in Harrisburg, this time between House Democrats.

According to Kevin Zwick of Capitolwire, Rep. Mike Sturla is set to challenge House Minority Leader Frank Dermody.

This development should not be surprising, as a major defeat like that suffered by House Democrats on Tuesday presents a great chance for members to make the case that new leadership is needed.

“It’s kinda incomprehensible that you could have a Republican Caucus that pretty much voted 100 percent with a governor that lost by 10 points and they would pick up eight seats,” Sturla told Zwick.

Rep. Dermody isn’t backing down, though, as he is defending his tenure by asserting that the election results show they were able to highlight Gov. Corbett’s harmful policies.

“I’m disappointed because Mike’s been a partner in our leadership team the last four years, but if he wants to have this fight then let’s have it,” Dermody said of Sturla.

Let the games begin.

12 Responses

  1. Joe Blows –

    Your ability to guess who I am is as bad as your ability to count votes. I don’t work for Dermody. I don’t work for the House Democrats leadership. I don’t work for the House Democrats at all. I have never received any money from any House Democrats. If you would have read my post, I said that I don’t care who wins between Dermody and Sturla.

    I’ve known Dermody and Sturla for 20 years. But I know how to count. Obviously you don’t. House Democrats in the room (one for Dermody and one for Sturla) told me Dermody was leading 43-21 when they stopped counting because he had more than a majority. Like I said, Sturla never had close to 55 votes (he never had more than 25-30). I was wrong about it being close, it was a blowout. You and your sources need to take remedial math again.

    I’m sure there are many differences between us but one is that I know how to count (and you don’t), a second is that I have good sources (and you don’t), and I don’t accuse others who know what they are talking about and predict the correct result of being paid by the other side (you do – it’s what people do when they are losing).

  2. Robbie
    You seem to be offended by the notion that Dermody may not be the leader of the #84Strong … The joke that has become the House Democrats is the creation of Dermody … Do you think he deserves to be leader again? Who knows, two more years of this dream team may result in the House D’s falling to the mid seventies! Obviously, you are someone that works for Dermody or one of the other so called “Leaders” and your nervous for your job. Dermody doesn’t even have all his fellow members from Pittsburgh.

    Joseph Blowofsky

  3. Joe Blows –

    Sturla has not even close to 55 votes. There are only 83 House Democratic vote. So Dermody has less than 28? I doubt that.

    Dermody claims he has a majority of votes. Sturla isn’t even claiming that, he is telling people he thinks he can get a majority of votes. Don’t overestimate how close Sturla is to Wolf. They are both from Central PA and have known each other for a while, but they aren’t as close as you think.

    I don’t care but I think Dermody wins a close race. We will see tomorrow who knows how to count and who needs to take remedial math again.

  4. Dermody only got 52% of the vote in his race in a district packed full of Dems in reapportionment–one of the reasons he voted with the Rs for the plan btw

  5. All the talk in the Capitol is that Sturla has over 55 members committed to vote for him and the Caucus is closing ranks around him. The members are demanding a change at the top. They are upset that Dermody can’t raise money, he is terrible on the floor, he lacks the work ethic needed to regain seats, the Dem stakeholders refuse to invest in the Dem’s until they get a new leader, too many Republicans went unchallenged and allot of members are still upset that Dermody voted for the new redistricting lines that lead to the historic defeats by the Dem’s. Outside stakeholders have all been talking and refuse to fund HDCC until competent people are in place. This should be a no brainer for the House D’s considering how close Sturla is to Gov elect Wolf

  6. Sean-
    All I said was that I didn’t know him. I have met candidates outside my region, including supporting one from Lancaster in the primary. However, unless I bump into him at a state committee event, or progressive summit, I am very unlikely to meet someone like him. I’m not going to comment and pretend I know him.

    I’m not particularly welcome at HDCC events given my years of pointed criticism (especially this year).

    I did NOT say that he was meaningless because I didn’t know him. However, given the GOP advantage, the entire Dem caucus is going to be meaningless if Wolf can’t find a lot of moderate Republicans to come to his side.

  7. Dave: So if you’ve never met a Democratic Politician that is outside of the Philadelphia area, he means nothing to you? I’ve had the chance to meet Sturla at HDCC fundraisers, on 3rd St in Harrisburg and at various conferences. He’d do a lot better than the other Democrat leaders who are not from the Philadelphia area. In fact, most of the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate have no relation to Philadelphia…

  8. Sean-
    He lives all the way out in Lancaster. I’ve never met him or had a conversation with him.

  9. I don’t know either Sturla or Dermody. Given the GOP advantage in the House, this fight for leadership could wind up being as important as two fleas arguing over control of the dog they live on.

    However, I hope they can do something about replacing the HDCC with more aggressive/hungry leadership, that won’t leave so many GOP incumbents unopposed.

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