Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Two State House Seats Still Up for Grabs

The general election is long over, but because some candidates ran successfully for two offices at the same time, a pair of special elections will have to be scheduled.  One seat will be vacated when Democratic Representative Eugene DePasquale of York County when he resigns from the House to be sworn in as Auditor General. He was elected in November, but also re-elected to his House seat. DePasquale says his office isn't rushing to finish constituent casework.
 

"We were being pretty adamant, you know, keeping up with that stuff even during the campaign so no we don'’t have much of a backlog here I mean certainly there’s some work that needs to get done and we’re going to make sure it gets done," said DePasquale.

The A-G-elect says his decision to wait until mid-January to resign his seat was based partly on the odd calendar and rules of the chamber. 

"It would have created complications if I had decided to just do it in mid-December for example.  So I was cognizant of the fact that I should just do it after January first.

The other seat that will be freed up is currently held by Allegheny County Democrat Matt Smith, who was elected to the state Senate as he simultaneously ran unopposed in his House district. He says he'’ll resign at the end of the legislative session on November 30. Calling for special elections falls to the chamber'’s Majority Leader next month, and to the Speaker in January. The House doesn'’t formally elect its Speaker until January 1, even though the new legislative session begins in December of this year. There is no word on when the special elections will be announced.