The gridlock in Harrisburg came to Pittsburgh for a night
Caption: Speaker of the House Mark Rozzi on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at Simmons Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business, Oakland. Photo Credit: John Colombo/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
(link) https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2023/01/25/mark-rozzi-pa-house-speaker-listening-tour-pittsburgh-cmu/stories/202301250101
Subhead: The state House Speaker Mark Rozzi kicked off his cross-state 'listening tour' with a stop at Carnegie Mellon University.
The Berks County Democrat kicked off his cross-state “listening tour” with an evening stop at Carnegie Mellon University, a day after he adjourned the House until Feb. 27. That move, which followed weeks of uncertainty over who would control the lower chamber, effectively froze the entire General Assembly until Allegheny County voters cast ballots in three House races next month — special elections widely expected to seal a razor-thin Democratic majority.
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More than 80 people turned out for the session on Wednesday [Jan. 25, 2023] at Carnegie Mellon. After the session, Mr. Rozzi told reporters he’s willing to recall the House sooner than Feb. 27 if lawmakers reach compromises on House rules and the statute of limitations. He called it “disgusting and shameless” to couple the child sexual abuse issue with a voter ID proposal.
“If it gets on the ballot, it’s going to be on the ballot by itself, not with these other constitutional amendments,” Mr. Rozzi said of the window for litigation. A longtime advocate for the idea, he has told of being raped by a Catholic priest when he was 13.
Residents who came to the event encouraged more bipartisan cooperation and making the legislative process more transparent.
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... and everyone expects those seats to be filled by Dems, the Democratic majority will be evident and the House will get down to regular business.
Right now there's no point in trying to do anything. So Mark Rozzi has a good idea to go around the state and keep talking and listening to the voters. It gives the media something positive to focus on for a couple of weeks.
And the media here refuses to accept that. We need the elections to happen to get the full House compliment in place and then move on. In the meantime, I think it is a great idea to take the time to go around the state to get some feedback and show that we DO want to "listen". Of course this does highlight the intransigence of the GOP here of pushing for extremist agendas that the state's residents don't care for, which the media are heavily invested in promoting.
So for example the media here has whined about - "well you know 'the House' missed the deadline for the sexual abuse Amendment to appear on the primary ballot" but they neglected to say that the Senate version had 2 "poison pill" amendments included with the main one - one for instituting draconian Voter ID provisions and the other neutering the power of the Governor. So it establishes their complicity in promoting the RW agenda in the state by purposeful omission of what the issues are.