And Now, It’s Time to Clean House
Perzel must go for reform to take root
Now that Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer and Senate Majority Leader Chip Brightbill have been defeated in their bids for re-election, one more task remains to complete the housecleaning of the Imperial Legislature: It is time for House Speaker John Perzel to go.
Speaker Perzel – along with Jubelirer, Brightbill and Governor Ed Rendell – were the chief architects of the legislative pay-jacking that has stoked a voter backlash of historic proportions. The pay raise vote laid bare the rotten underpinnings of the state House and the morally corrupt manner in which that institution has been run. Nobody bears more blame for the institutional rot than does John Perzel.
That point was driven home during the pre-election maneuvering on property tax reform. With Perzel off lining his pockets by attending a corporate board meeting, the House GOP caucus actually operated as a democratic institution. Individual members were able to speak their mind, and the result was an unexpected and dramatic decision to scuttle what was a lame attempt at property tax reform.
Had Speaker Perzel – rather than Majority Leader Sam Smith – run that meeting, the outcome likely would have been vastly different. Perzel would certainly have bullied the legislation through his caucus, thus handing property owners yet another defeat in the decades-long quest for meaningful tax reform. But Perzel wasn’t there. And absent Perzel, House Republicans acted like, well, Republicans. That’s something they don’t do when Perzel is around. For a change the caucus actually represented its constituency.
A number of pay-jacking Republicans from supposedly “safe” seats went down to defeat in the recent Primary election. More would have, but they wisely decided to retire rather than face the voters. It is now a crystal clear fact that Speaker Perzel’s autocratic management of the House based upon his ability to “protect” members who cast hard votes is a system that was built on a house of cards. Perzel can protect no one.
The current political climate places remaining members of Perzel’s Republican caucus in great electoral danger. Any member, save those with no opposition, must view himself or herself at great risk in November. As the Primary made clear, the normal perks of incumbency are not enough to save even the most powerful of legislators from the public’s ire. Although Perzel is safe in his Philadelphia seat, a Rubik’s Cube of a district which he personally gerrymandered to his advantage, other legislators are not. If the members of Perzel’s caucus return to Harrisburg next month and do not make dispatching the Speaker from his lofty perch their first order of business, look for more of their number to be defeated in November. In fact, the bloodletting could be so extreme as to imperil the GOP’s majority in the lower chamber.
Speaker John Perzel is the public face of the Republican Party in the state House. But, his brand of autocratic, leadership-driven politics is out of step with the rest of the state, most especially that of the more rural and conservative areas from which a majority of House GOP members hail. To leave him in place would be to render the revolution which began on May 16th incomplete.
Backbench GOP House members have for too long remained silent and given into Perzel’s bully tactics. But the political landscape of Pennsylvania has changed and they can no longer hide behind the speaker’s rostrum. The time has come for rank and file legislators to grow a spine and complete the housecleaning. If they fail to do so, many may find themselves with Jubelirer and Brightbill on the outside looking in.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is [email protected].)
