House Democrats elected Rep. Bill DeWeese (Greene) Speaker of the House along with Rep. Keith McCall (Carbon) as Majority Leader this week, taking advantage of their apparent 102-101 majority in the House.

“Today’s gathering was convened so that we can meet the wishes of voters across the Commonwealth who decided November 7 that they want a Democratic majority to lead the state House of Representatives,” Speaker-elect Bill DeWeese said. “While our margin is just one seat, in fact this year’s election saw the largest change of seats from one party to the other since 1978 and represents a call for change from the past 12 years of Republican leadership.”

The remaining Leadership team includes: Mark Cohen (Philadelphia) as Whip, Frank Dermody (Allegheny) as Caucus Chairman, Dan Surra (Elk) as Caucus Administrator, Phyllis Mundy (Lackawanna) as Caucus Secretary, and Dwight Evans (Philadelphia) as Appropriations Chair.

This is the same Leadership team the Democrats elected in November with the additional of Rep. Mundy.

House Republicans officially asked this week for a hand recount of all 23,000+ paper ballots in the disputed Chester County House race. They believe the original ballots, which were scanned in to special equipment to be counted, have an error rate that would give them a fighting chance at narrowing the 23 vote difference between the candidates.

12/8/2006