Elections stall Assembly

This piece was originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer's Currents.

This week's topic: As the General Assembly returns to Harrisburg, how will the election season affect the productivity of state House and Senate members, especially on such big-ticket items as pension reform and liquor privatization?

Rooney: Just as we witnessed with President Obama's decision [delaying executive action] on immigration, make no mistake about it, politics factors in tremendously when you talk about getting big things done less that 60 days before an election. Ironically, we've had one party in control [in Harrisburg] for the last 3½ years and they haven't gotten things done, which makes the prospect of getting things done now virtually impossible.

Novak: The days of getting big things done with one-party control are numbered. One of the biggest problems with Obamacare is the fact that it was a straight party-line vote. Big, sustainable policies need bipartisanship. In Harrisburg, when the big issues like pension reform are on the table, and when the stakes are so high for many legitimate stakeholders, you need some kind of working agreement that isn't going to be perfect for everybody, but is going to be good for the commonwealth. We just don't have enough legislative days at this point. I think it's reasonable and historic that there aren't as many session days in election years because members are running. But, if the deals aren't almost done before the legislature comes back, it's going to be hard to put the necessary votes together once they are back.

Rooney: You have to look at what motivates elected officials to vote a certain way. Number one is belief. People do vote their conscience. People believe in an issue and they support it with their vote. Another motivating factor is the political reality. There are votes that might run counter to someone's partisan inclinations, but may be good for the district and that can be a huge motivating factor. And then there is the fear factor. In the case of Gov. Corbett, when most public polls have him down over 20 points this close to the election - he's not going to instill a lot of fear in the hearts of legislators. Combine that with the governor's veto of many of the legislatures' spending priorities, they won't be casting votes because they believe in him, either. It's an impossible storm.

Novak: Gov. Corbett is set up to say: "I wanted to do pension reform, but the legislature didn't do it. I understand that liquor privatization is important - they didn't do it." In my opinion, the problem is we have a Republican-led Senate and House that wants to do some of these things, but recognize with the internal caucus politics that they can't do it on straight-line party votes.

Rooney: This inactivity keeps issues alive, which will impact the election. Remember, no matter the issue, you have a lot of passionate people who garner tremendous grassroots support and attention. Take liquor privatization, for example. People's lives could be affected, whether they are working for the state stores, affiliated with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or Christian conservatives who believe the proliferation of alcohol is wrong. All of these factions will keep paying attention. Legislatively, they may be kicking the can down the road, but what's happened - or what hasn't happened in Harrisburg - might determine which voters show up, where they show up, and for what reasons they show up at the polls, even if it's on the margins.

Novak: Issues will play a factor in the campaign with some people and stakeholders. But, we are also going to see people who aren't stakeholders look at the legislature and ask: "Did you get things done that we needed done?" I am not sure there isn't a split among the voters between people who look at an active legislature as a positive and those who don't. Pension reform might be that one issue that is an exception. Regardless of where you come from, people understand that we ought to do something about it, but the devil is in the details. It's a very hard nut to crack that will require four caucuses and a governor agreeing on a plan that doesn't make everybody happy, but at least makes enough people content to move forward.

Rooney: Ironically, a lot of these big-ticket items would often be resolved in the lame-duck session. But as part of the reform movement, we don't have lame-duck sessions anymore.

Novak: With the looming governor's election and the polls saying what they are saying, it's even harder for folks on the fence to jump off the fence.

Rooney: At the end of the day, politics can be macro and they can be micro, and in an election season all politics are micro. Be it good, bad, or indifferent, politics matter, whether it is your own politics or someone else's for the cause, and you can't separate them when a legislator's job is on the line.

Novak: It's the politics of self-preservation. It's human nature. We are seeing it play out nationally. The president made a mistake when he made a pronouncement in June that he was going to do something on immigration reform. They weren't thinking about the Democrat senators who are running in red states. Now, on the eve of elections, the decision is to wait because those senators are running scared. It is the same thing in Pennsylvania. Bad policy is made when you just ignore normal human behavior.

T.J. Rooney is a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party

Alan Novak is a former chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania