Within a week of Rozzi’s election, his closest Republican ally, state Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair County, called for his resignation from the speakership. At the same time, Rozzi regularly met with state House Democratic leaders.

Speaking to Spotlight PA Tuesday morning, Rozzi said he went into the deal aware that Republicans were trying to use him, and he decided that they “were gonna pay for it.”

“There’s a lot of things wrong with Harrisburg. And the way I was elected speaker, that’s a prime description of what is wrong with Harrisburg because the Republicans had a majority at that time,” Rozzi said. “But they tried to manipulate, hoodwink, snooker the members of this General Assembly by electing me, thinking that I would do their bidding for them. That I would turn against my party.”

former Speaker Rozzi. You did a great service to the Commonwealth by keeping Rs from passing bills for rw-approved constitutional amendments that would limit the right to vote and other nefarious things.

Pennsylvania Politics
Inside Joanna McClinton’s quick rise to becoming Pennsylvania’s first female speaker of the House

McClinton grew up in Southwest Philadelphia and has been a state representative since 2015. She's now the first Black woman to serve as speaker of the state House.


by Julia Terruso
Updated on Feb 28, 2023, 6:48 p.m. ET

Joanna McClinton became Pennsylvania’s first female speaker of the House on Tuesday, ascending into the leadership role after seven years representing Philadelphia in the state legislature, where she made a name for herself as a relationship-builder and a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform and women’s health issues.

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McClinton, 40, grew up in Southwest Philadelphia, graduated from LaSalle University and Villanova Law School, and worked as a public defender. Once she entered politics, friends and colleagues say she excelled at networking and navigating Harrisburg. She quickly made a name for herself in Democratic circles by pushing back on Republican policies in passionate, widely viewed floor speeches. Her election makes her the first woman and only the second Black person to be speaker in the state’s history. With Kim Ward serving as president pro tempore of the Republican-controlled Senate and Debra Todd chief justice of the state Supreme Court, it’s also the first time Pennsylvania’s legislative and judicial branches have been led exclusively by women.

Several of McClinton’s colleagues noted her historic election occurred on the last day of Black History Month. “I don’t know that I’ve witnessed anybody moving that quickly in public service to that type of elevated position,” said State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams (D., Philadelphia), whose office McClinton worked for as a chief legal counsel. “And that’s partly a blessing, but it also has to do with her instincts, her intellect.”

She’ll now preside over a chamber where her party holds a razor-thin majority and has intraparty ideological disagreements. And she will have to make deals with Republicans in the Senate to pass legislation. While not a single Republican voted for her speakership, she takes the gavel after GOP members grew frustrated with Rozzi, who made a deal with them last month to become speaker.

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https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/joanna-mcclinton-speaker-harrisburg-democrats-pennsylvania-20230228.html