Editorial: Did we really need another special election?

Pennsylvania is facing a special election.

Again.

It will decide control of the state’s House of Representatives.

Again.

Sara Innamorato has resigned from her job as lawmaker representing the 21st District as she completes her run for Allegheny County executive. She secured the Democratic nomination for the position in the May primary. The resignation, she told Spotlight PA, was to focus on the November election facing off against Republican opponent Joe Rockey.

The 21st District will be the seventh Pennsylvania seat to have a special election this year. That’s the most special elections since 2015 when six state representatives and two senators resigned for various reasons: three were elected to other positions, three took other jobs and two pleaded guilty to crimes.

Pennsylvania started the year with four special elections. The 27th District Senate seat was up in January after John Gordner resigned to become counsel to Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield.

That was followed by three Allegheny County House seats — districts 32, 34 and 35 — due to Summer Lee’s election to Congress, Austin Davis’ election as lieutenant governor and the October 2022 death of longtime legislator Anthony DeLuca, who was reelected posthumously.

The timing of those threw the House into turmoil due to a teetering majority. Dems had a theoretical edge; Republicans had a practical one. It left everyone wondering who was in charge and prompted an attempt at a middle ground that prompted more bad feelings than bipartisanship and left nothing done.

The special elections put the House in a Democratic majority that was still far from rock solid, as evidenced in May. That was when additional special elections happened. One filled the 108th House seat of Lynda Schlegal Culver, who won the 27th Senate District in January. The other replaced Michael Zabel in the 163rd; Zabel resigned amid harassment allegations.

Both seats stayed in their respective Republican and Democratic hands, keeping the precarious balance of power.

But here we are again.

Innamorato didn’t have to set this up again. She may be favored by the political history of the county to win and become the next county executive, but it’s not a guarantee. Of the three people who have held that position since it was created in 2000, one was a Republican. Arguably, the harder part was getting through the larger number of people in the primary. She did that without resigning.

Now, as the state struggles with its umpteenth budget impasse, with the House’s ability to make a decision critical, we are once more bumped back to a legislative chamber with no clear majority. Again.

The special election is scheduled for Sept. 19, the soonest it could be. The question now is whether it will be the last in 2023.