A new day in Harrisburg. A new day for writs of election for the 34th and 35th state House district special elections.
House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) issued new writs of election, asserting his authority to do so on Thursday for those two Allegheny County districts.
Both Cutler and Democratic House Leader Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) had previously issued separate writs – or formal announcements of the holding of an election – calling for special elections on February 7, 2023.
Speaking before a small gathering in the state Capitol Rotunda, Cutler said “With the authority of a clear and undeniable majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and backed up by prior House precedent, Pennsylvania statute and the prior decisions of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, I am issuing these lawful writs of election to finally provide electoral certainty for the people of Allegheny County who are currently lacking representation in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.”
Cutler’s new writs of election call for the 34th and 35th House District elections to be held on Pennsylvania’s regular primary day – Tuesday, May 16.
The special election for the 32nd House District seat, left vacant by the October passing of Tony DeLuca, will remain on February 7.
“It is unfortunate we had to arrive at this conclusion today, but the illegitimate and illegal writs of election issued last week by the leader of the minority party in the House, with the cooperation of the Pennsylvania Department of State, forced this continued action and the ongoing litigation over those writs,” said Cutler. “This is what happens when Democrats continue to redefine terms to fit their singular belief of what is right and show their true nature as pure partisans, instead of as rational stewards of our shared institutions.”
McClinton press secretary Nicole Riegelman released a statement that said in part, “Today, Rep. Cutler continued his campaign to disenfranchise nearly 200,000 voters in suburban Pittsburgh. The only reason for the GOP leader to delay special elections in Districts 34 and 35 in Allegheny County until the May Primary is to deny those voters their right to representation in Harrisburg, and to empower the House Republican Caucus to play politics and ram through extremist policies.”
Cutler added that “Holding these special elections on the date of the 2023 primary election will save Allegheny County money by not requiring the duplication of resources and election expenses and will allow plenty of time for the county to prepare for mail-in and absentee ballots.”
Riegelman’s responsed, “Rep. Cutler was the first to act, and while flawed, chose to set the special election to fill the vacancy that occurred on December 1 in District 32 on February 7. For what can only be understood as an attempt to disenfranchise, Rep. Cutler has filed writs for the vacancies that occurred on December 7 – 7 days after the original vacancy – in Districts 34 and 35 – for May 16 – 98 days after the original date of February 7.”
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13 Responses
“McClinton press secretary Nicole Riegelman released a statement that said in part, “Today, Rep. Cutler continued his campaign to disenfranchise nearly 200,000 voters in suburban Pittsburgh.”
Nicole – please stop. Please stop blaming Cutler for the situation your caucus finds itself in. Cutler did not force Summer and Austin to resign and hand the majority to the Republicans, that was your boss who made that move. Cutler did not let Summer and Austin greedily run for two offices at the same time which created this fiasco. Cutler scheduled a special election in early February for 65,000 of those 200,000 people, but now because of more democrat ineptitude, that is up in the air because your boss issued a duplicate writ for the same election and now it’s in the courts.
Nicole – if you were really so concerned about these people not having representation for a time, you should have asked Joanna to ask Summer and Austin to step out of the House races back in July so other candidates could have been nominated. Problem solved.
Nicole – please stop blaming Cutler for democrat caucus failures. Please stop trying to pretend that this is all Cutler’s fault. Certainly no one knew DeLuca would pass away. But the situation with Summer and Austin was entirely preventable by your bosses who sat by and literally did nothing, and then when they did, they made bad decisions.
Spot on! So tired of the shady moves from the Democrats then blame it on the Republicans. Don’t get me wrong, RINOS ARE WORSE than the democrats. Sick of it.
PA law has always made space for legislators to run for reelection and higher office at once. The Republicans literally ran a sitting legislator for governor last month. You want to punish voters because their representatives won *too much*? Sick. The only way Republicans won a majority in the house is if my district just doesn’t matter. Explain to me, why shouldn’t my vote matter?
GOP is the majority at this time. The rules and laws are on there side.
Since when has the rules and laws stopped the democrats from doing what the want?
102>101
The only way you can argue Republicans won a majority is if voters in three districts, including mine, don’t matter. Please Frank, explain to me why you think my district deserves to be disenfranchised?
The Republicans don’t have a majority because they told their cult members to overwhelm counties with recount petitions. The Republicans SHOULD follow the law and allow the majority to set the dates. Rs trying to steal another election or two. Insurrectionists refusing to listen to the voters again.
Oh, ok, how about we gave voter ID, election DAY not count them till we have enough? The democrats gave changed election laws to suit themselves and gotten away with it far to long. The Republicans have the majority as of now. Check your facts.
Delay delay delay, the only electoral certainty, when a MAGA GOP sets the date for election of Democrats.
Well of course he wants to delay until May – he is steadfastly against the Will of the People having any say in the state government. Republicans can’t win without Cheating.
This is ALL about Abortion.
It’s about following the law. Abortion has come back to the states to decide. False claims about woman’s rights plays to uninformed and easily manipulated residents.
It plays to people that have been conditioned to react emotionally . People have been told what to think not how to think. Very easily manipulated. They listen to the loudest voice and not always the most honest one.
The only thing that changed with abortion is that the power was returned to the states to decide. If that’s the only concern you have about just how screwed up this country is, you might want to educate yourself.