(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania Democrats will return to the state House in January with a one-seat majority intact.
This, after incumbent Rep. Frank Burns staved off Republican challenger Amy Bradley in the state’s 72nd district, nestled in deep red Cambria County. It’s the very same county that extended voting hours Tuesday after a ballot printing issue derailed counting.
The mishap delayed results for many of the state’s closer races, including Dave McCormick’s defeat of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. – a result the latter says is premature.
As of Thursday afternoon, Burns leads Bradley by less than 1,000 votes. His campaign declared victory earlier in the day.
And with that, the power dynamic of the state Legislature remains unchanged, far different story from the Republican sweep of the national landscape.
With that extra one seat, Democratic leadership will control committees and the voting schedule – a right the party went more than a decade without before recapturing the lower chamber in 2022.
The leverage means Senate Republicans must broker deals with both a Democratic governor and House. With the high ground in negotiations, the party can block school choice expansion, universal voter ID, stricter abortion limits and regulatory reform on which they disagree.
And it’s that same balance that saw the biggest ever one-year infusion of state funding in public education – something Democrats writ-large say is long overdue. Despite their concerns about sustaining the funding amid a multi-billion dollar structural deficit, Senate Republicans traded the figure for business tax cuts and the creation of affordable tuition programs.
The Legislature returns to Harrisburg later this month, with its last day scheduled for Nov. 30. A new session begins in January.