Jan 4, 2007 3 min read

One truth is quite evident from Tuesday’s surprise elevation of Republican state Rep. Dennis M. O’Brien to the lofty post of Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives: Democratic House Majority leader H. William DeWeese, aware that he couldn’t claim the big prize for himself because of the defection of one of his own, engineered the next best thing. He got the vast majority of his own caucus to support a Republican who ousted incumbent Republican Speaker John Perzel. It was a brilliant political move, one in which DeWeese demonstrated the immense skills he can put to use if and when he wants to. That’s why we’ve long criticized him for a lax stand on open records and creating more transparency in state government, particularly as concerns legislation and legislative spending. Those are important matters, ones in which the status quo is completely unacceptable. We’ve long believed DeWeese can and should do more to push for necessary changes. That’s been our main beef with him.

Ironically, another blanket of secretness was evident in O’Brien’s sudden ascension to Speaker. The deal was cut and kept under wraps from some Democrats until DeWeese nominated O’Brien for Speaker on the House floor. Many had no idea it was coming.

So when O’Brien says things like, “The people of Pennsylvania deserve a chamber … that’s open and transparent,” we’d like to believe he’s sincere about making that happen. But the closed-door manner in which he was literally propelled to the Speakership, while superbly executed as a game plan, gives us reason for pause. How can anyone usher in what’s suppose to be a new era of openness by keeping members of the Democratic caucus in the dark until the last minute?

To the extent that making O’Brien’s candidacy well known would have given Perzel the chance to mount a counter-strategy, we understand the need to keep the move under wraps. But now that the players are in place, DeWeese, who clearly emerges from the rubble with his powerful Majority Leader status in hand and a Speaker of his own creation, has no excuses not to deliver on needed reforms. He should start by embracing state Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney’s proposed open records legislation, which would transform Pennsylvania’s law from one of the nation’s worst to one of the best.

It’s not enough for the House to simply adopt “rule changes” to achieve openness, although those would be welcome as well. What’s needed is a law that puts teeth into the public’s right to know – and makes the Legislature as beholden to that law as other layers of government in the commonwealth.

More than ever, DeWeese is on the spot. He can’t claim minority status as a reason for not getting anything done, nor can he use the Speaker’s power to set the House agenda as a crutch. DeWeese talks as if he’s gotten the reform message.We hope he has and that he follows through.