Keystone Reckoning Podcast

The PA State House Dumpster Fire Explained

February 02, 2023 The Keystone Reckoning Project
The PA State House Dumpster Fire Explained
Keystone Reckoning Podcast
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Keystone Reckoning Podcast
The PA State House Dumpster Fire Explained
Feb 02, 2023
The Keystone Reckoning Project

Welcome back! We've been off doing all the things for a while, but we're jumping back into the podcast with a vengeance, talking all things Pennsylvania politics.

Today we focus on the dumpster fire that is the PA State House, with host and former State Representative Jesse White talking about how we got here, where we are, and where we're heading.

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

Visit www.truebluegear.com for all of your progressive political t-shirts and gear. Use the code "KEYSTONE" at checkout for a 20% discount for Keystone Reckoning Podcast listeners!

Support the Show.

Check out our previous episodes and subscribe to the podcast at https://keystonereckoning.buzzsprout.com/.

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Show Notes Transcript

Welcome back! We've been off doing all the things for a while, but we're jumping back into the podcast with a vengeance, talking all things Pennsylvania politics.

Today we focus on the dumpster fire that is the PA State House, with host and former State Representative Jesse White talking about how we got here, where we are, and where we're heading.

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

Visit www.truebluegear.com for all of your progressive political t-shirts and gear. Use the code "KEYSTONE" at checkout for a 20% discount for Keystone Reckoning Podcast listeners!

Support the Show.

Check out our previous episodes and subscribe to the podcast at https://keystonereckoning.buzzsprout.com/.

Follow the Keystone Reckoning Project on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
LinkedIn

Questions? Comments? Ideas for a future episode? Email us at info@keystonereckoning.com

Support us by donating to The Keystone Reckoning Project political action committee, and also check out our partner True Blue Gear for some sweet progressive t-shirts and swag!

[jesse]:

hi and welcome to the keystone mrekoting podcast this is jessie white your host i've been away for a while well i haven't been away for a while the podcast has been away for a while but i wanted to kick everything again i've spent actually most of the last year out working on campaigns and doing some different things in some different counties and now that that's kind of died down i've been able to kind of focus back on a few doffen things and one of the things that's really been on top of my list was getting the podcast goat again so here we are and here i am i have a lot of good episodes coming up some really great interview some interesting things people from all over the state talking about all sorts of different political things from the practical to the academic to you name it but i wanted to start right now and i thought it was god place a good jumping off point to get back into talk about what is going on what the hell is going on with the p a state house i've had a ton of people reach out to me being a former member kind of knowing how the place works asking me what is happening because it's just a little it's almost too much to keep up with so what i thought i do for this first episode is just kind of give a brief over view of where we're at where we're heading and and why we may be heading there and i'll preface it all by saying this anybody that says they know definitely what is going on is absolutely ing or just playing out insane because even in an institution that is roller coaster kind of by design this recent turn of events has really kind of outpaced anything that anybody could have imagined so we'll start at the beginning and i'll to jump through the procedural history and get down to the kind of analysis of where we're at so for anybody that hasn't been paying attention democrats won a shocking majority in the state house after this last set of elections in twenty twenty two they emerged from everything with after recounts and you now all the close calls and everything they came out one o two one o one two hundred three seats in the state house state live that was largely because of some great candidates and some great victories and also because redistricting was able to start to fix some of the jerry mandering that had gone on that had made the house virtually unwinnable for democrats for a very long period of time so it helped reset a few things and make some races com petitive one of the things that redistricty did was take some traditionally like solid solid blue seats and break them apart into some for exam areas like lancaster harrisburg places like that where there is like one solid blue seat in a sea of red that is now they might be to fair lass it blue seats there and that's not jerry mandering that's actually undoing jerry mandering that had gone on for years and years and ear so any event the day after the election everybody wakes up and they're like oh my god do the math it looks like we may actually be at one o two to one o one so then what happened well it gets it got really complicated because of those of the hundred and two actually before election day the state rape in the thirty second district tony de luca had passed a m tony i could do a whole show just talking about tony de luca and how amazing he was to serve with and just what a great guy he was i mean just entertaining and just he like that they broke the mold with them there'll never be folks like that back in state government and i'll save my tony to luca stories for another day maybe bring a couple other former colleagues on we can talk about him because he was just a trip but anyway he passes away then so now you're one o one to one o one because the seat was vacant there's not until it has been filled via special election there's just nothing anybody can do it's one o one to one o one so now here is no majority complicating matters even more was the fact that state rep summerlee was elected to congress state rep austin davis was elected lieutenant governor they then would they could have been sworn in on january third but summer had to go be sworn in congress and you can't serve in both the state and federal government at the same time austin davis could have stayed as a state rep until he was sworn as a lieutenant governor a couple of weeks later but this is where it starts to get wild is you had the leaders from both caucuses democrat and republican kind of jockeying for position as to what was going to happen because nobody really knew what was going to happen on swearing in day now the way this works is constitutionally state reps take office on december first that's when they technically their terms of office technically begin but they are not sworn in until the first tuesday of the new year it's a little complicated the first thing they do when they assemble as a body is they elect a speaker the speaker generally from the majority party then sets up the rules they vote on the house rules and they quote organize the house committees form and all of that stuff none of those things happened on january third so what happened was both the democrats were actually down seats because of they were one o one to one o one without represent him to luca then up summerley and austin david both resigned in advance of swearing in day so it actually put the republicans in the majority i'll be at ten rarely and just to make it clear the three seats that were vacant by the death and the two resignations were actually there there fairly solid democratic seats so it's of a foregone conclusion that those are going to be democratic seats of course anything can happen those special elections are actually slated for next week but all things being equal it's a safe bet that those are going to all be democratic seats the problem was they just didn't have the numbers on swearing in date to get to a majority to get it to get a speaker so off line there were all sorts of rumors speculating you know with someone going to switch parties was you know as there a deal being made and and it was fascinating because i will digress until one story that when i was elected two thousand six we had a very similar thing we took the majority by one by one vote or one member it was one o two to one o one and we did not have the votes unfortunately to elect a democratic speaker that was going to be bill deis from green county had been he was the democratic leader he didn't have the votes within the caucus to become speaker and then the next thing you know there were d is being floated and it was announced that one of the democratic reps was going to switch parties and become a republican which would have then given them one of two to one to one majority we go in for swearing in day and nobody knows what's going to happen and least of all me or any of my new colleagues because we were like didn't even know ere parking bass where i mean this was just wild and we go in there and the what happens is is where we're getting ready to vote on a speaker they go running up and down the aisle yelling denniobrian deniobrianad we're like who the hell is denniobrian dene brian was his state rap i'm outside of philly moderate republican good guy he's uh went on to serve on philly city council and he was the kind of consensus candidate for speaker the deal was came about in a meeting with governor then governor ed randell and from all accounts was master minded by a second term state rep that you may or may not have heard of by the name of joshapirom true story it was wild so the very first thing i did is a democratic state rep was voted for a republican for speaker and so we actually had a functioning democratic majority but a republican speaker now that's important for this reason one of the things that daniel brian really cared about his big issue was autism and as part of whatever you know whatever went on it was made very clear that he would be able to get those priorities funding priorities programming and all of that addressed as speaker in a way that he probably wouldn't have been able to do as a rank in falbmen or certainly not in the minority party so that because that comes into play here so fast forward from two thousand seven until twenty twenty three and here we are everything old is new again and we're in a similar situation so nobody really had the votes and because you need it gets complicated but you need a majority of the eligible members now with the two resignations and the one death that actually took the number of members eligible members down to two hundred from two o three which means you need a hundred and one to get a majority so you know this everybody talks about a hundred and two votes being the number that only that one o two is only based on the fact when there's two hundred and three members in that but when there were only two hundred fifty percent plus one is your constitutional majority so you needed one o one they didn't know where they were going to get it from long story short republican state wrap jim gregory gets up and nominates democrat mark rose as speaker a move that from all accounts nobody really saw coming and it certainly was not planned very much or very far he then gets the support of the a big chunk of the republic and in the house including the republican leadership a lot of the republican leadership it all happens really fast and then the democrats turn around and support as for speaker so you he ended up winning with you know with a substantial number of votes and it just all happened you know it was one of those things that happened in a blur and everybody looked around and was like what the hell just happened here and so this is where it all starts to fall apart is speaker ras's big issue is pushing a constitutional amendment that would remove the statute to limitations for survivors of child sexual abuse m mark is a victim of child sexual abuse as well as jim gregory the republican the two of them have worked on this issue for a long time i remember serving with mark and king with him about this issue all the way back then when i served on the judiciary committebecause that's where the issue had to go through so the constitutional amendment that he's working on would remove that statute of limitation to allow sexual salt victims to go after the the perpetrators of the crimes there's a lot that goes into why that hasn't become a thing yet a lot it has to do with the catholic church and again that's a whole other discussion for a whole other day the point is it's one of those things that has broad public support but internal politics has prevented it from becoming law and probably just best to leave it there for right now so they they nominate speaker rose he takes the rostrum there's big confusion as to kind of he gives an interview or gives some remarks right you know in the moment that are immediately misinterpreted by just about everybody um in which he says rosie says he's going to be a quote independent speaker the republican members read that as you are going to as him saying i'm going to change my party affiliation independent ah democrats read that as i'm going to be independent minded right uh rose says that he's going to have you know democrats and republicans on his staff and you know he's going to towards my partisanship and all these different things now you know here's the funny part is that everybody loves to hear talk about by partisanship democrats have not been in control of the state house since went they lost it in the tea party years and twenty ten um and before that they only had the majority for four years out of like twenty before that so there are democratic members who are like champing at the bit to get their priorities past and quite frankly aren't really all that interested by partisanship you know because in the state house being in the majority is everything can you run the agenda you you control everything um you know you raise more money your fun raisers you have lobby more willing to work with you you have it's just a binary thing you in the majority or you're not and it's a huge difference so democrats really aren't on the weren't all that thrilled about this you know this prospect of like power sharing especially when if you ward flip the calendar forward just a little while you're going to have you know a very clear democratic majority so the question then became why does any of this matter right now right what's the what's the what's the point if the democrats are going to be in a majority in mid february what's the big deal you know what could really happen between now and then because normally you know the governor gives his budget address in february that because governorship here just got elected ice worn in that isn't going to even happen until later so you know normally in february you're having appropriations hearing none of that's happening right now here's what it's all about and it comes back to this issue of the constitutional amendments and so constitutional the way the constitution is amended in pensylvania the state constitution is language the proposed amendment has to be passed in two consecutive sessions of the legislature so by each session is a two year period so you know twenty one twenty two one session twenty three four is another session then it is if it passes each of the two sessions consecutively then it goes on the ballet as a ballet referendum and if it is approved by the voters then it becomes law so a few things about this you know as we've seen republicans have really adopted and embraced the constitutional amendment route because they can avoid the governor's signature there's nothing that governor shapiro or back then governor wolf could do to stop a constitutional amendment he's just not part of the process so it's a way to create to do things legislatively without having to worry about a veto which would obviously kill the whole scenario so you've got these constitutional amendments and they are also almost always passed the number that the statistics of what is passed and what hasn't passed over the last like twenty years is overwhelmingly in favor so republicans you know their ideas are pretty clear well let's just get these constitutional amendments if we want to get something done get a constitutional amendment on the boat there are there were several that were past last session that were tea that would be teed up that could run this session one was the abortion amendment that is talks about the states role in abortion republicans say it's vague and not a big deal but if you read into it it gets it's clearly a big problem there was also a vote or idea amendment that would require vote or id not just for in person but also for mail in voting which creates all sorts of craziness that in terms of implementation um that i can't even begin to pass in a short period of time there was another one that has to do with by passing the governor and the executive branch on reg certain regulations specifically a lot of environmental stuff um which would basically just take the knees out from you know ex a tive agencies like the department of environmental protection and things like that and there was the sexual assault statute limitations so there's four there was also one about the lieutenant governor being limiting that as its own separate elective position and making it kind of a running mate with it governor so so technical there are five that are kind of like on the table that are in play i can tell you and it's been proven out the republic an have no interest whatsoever in running the abortion met for a couple of reasons one i think it's not too hard to see that the slacking that republicans took generally in twenty twenty two even in places like kansas um over you know the issue of abortion especially because it was message just so expertly by groups like playing parenthood by defining it as a freedom and and things like that they just did such an amazing job of doing the messaging it became pretty clear that that's a loser for republicans they don't want to touch it why would they you know that they don't want the back lash that's off the table lieutenant governor one seems to kind of go and then nobody cares at this point pile haven't really heard anything of it then you have so you have the last three of those the voter i d amendment is clearly what the republicans want because if they can use that to suppress mail in voting in twenty twenty four that's the goal that's what it is you know they've watched there's been a lot of stories about how if you know how democrats have won recent legislative cycles based on mail and voting and you know unfortunately for republican trump and everybody else spent so much time and energy demonizing it that now they're like oh wait a minute we probably need that and you're starting to see it about face but the other the other thought as well if we could make it really hard for people to vote by mail then we will be able to uh you know if that suppresses the voter turn out which would be almost exclusively democratic that helps us in twenty twenty four in the presidential and you know trying we take the legislative majority that's their end game right and that's what i firmly believe is and the regulatory thing is just like you know that that's just a money thing for them you know if they can you know the oiling as industry and people like that if they can find ways to know sidestep even the most basic environmental regulations then that just fills their campaign coffers and makes them look great so and i would argue that i mean the impact of that one may actually be bigger than some of these others but it's just not the sexy topic that's going to get everybody all worked up anyhow so you have all these these balls in play so the the republicans in the senate firmly in the majority they come into session and they pass the language that includes all it includes all three regulation vot or i d sexual assault protection they send that they pass them over as a package and then they like basically leave town they're like well here you go and it sets up the scenario where the house has a choice they can either pass this the package with all three in which case they would all three go on the ballet at the same time for approval by the voters now originally the thought was that they wanted to run these in the may sixteenth primary election that was kind of like the theory i never quite believed it for a few reasons but that ship has pretty much sailed because there were there are some pretty there's some hefty guide lines for when they have to be legally advertised and like there's some hard and fast headlines that just can't be avoided they have i think the internal deadline given by the governor's office was like february first is up today or right around today reality and reality i think they could probably go about another they could probably go to about valentine's day and still get it done if they really wanted to but they would so what the republicans in the senate said we're okay youve got to run all three because they know that they just want them all to pass and they know that if they run together that's a better odds for the republicans to get them to get all three if you do them as a group now the the house members my speaker rose said absolutely not we're not running them together i want my sexual assault amendment to run on its own first in the spring by itself and i'm shutting the house down until we can make that happen pretty guts thing to say jim gregory the republican who had nominated rose for speaker and had shared the same issue said the same exact thing he blasted his fellow republicans for playing games and trying to lump these two together or these three together ah jim gregory also like we we'll have to someone needs to check in on him because he then also after nominating rose for speaker then called on rose to resign because he said he wasn't honest about switching his voter registration to independent which i don't think it was ever clear that he actually claimed would so like jim gregory's like just going after everybody like he's just having a time right now like he's just having a rough go of it so the question is what do you do if you're if you're rose and you're trying to get your amendment passed without the other two now i will also say rose is given has given some quotes and some some indications that he is not opposed to vote or idea um now whether that's positioning or posturing or whatever i don't know but it wasn't like a non starter with him i believe the quote was i had no vote or ideas important or something like that on organ day at so we're at the stale mate right now because of the other part because we needed more layers to this obviously is that before leaving office governor wolf called for a special session of the legislature focusing on passing an amendment to protect survivors of sexual assault special session is just kind of like almost like a paper thing but what it means is is during like they gavel out regular session they gavel in special session but the thing is there in a special session you're limited in what you can what you pass has to be limited to the subject of the session right like you can't do other bills you can't you know it's very it's a narrowly tailored thing the problem is is that the republicans in the house were like no we don't need to do it in special session we're going to do it in regular session because we want to do all three together and right now because they hold a majority because of the three vacancies they can control basically how this works i mean they have a majority they could control the floor they could control the schedule it became pretty obvious as this whole thing kind of devolved that nothing was going to happen and you know everybody just started like pissing everybody else off you know they were like little things like uh they because they couldn't even agree on rules you know there were deals being floated and negotiations and things and you know i've heard from a lot of people behind the scenes but they couldn't come up to any agreements on anything so without a set of rules just like what happened at the federal congress without a set of rules like nothing happens everything is at standstill and that's where we're sitting now so the speaker so what happened one of you now to give you an idea of just how like much things were shown the cracks were starting to show one day when they were all up the capital and they couldn't get anything figured out the house republicans go up to the chamber when they were out of session they go up to the house floor and take like the picture of here we are we're ready to work where are the democrats which is you know just a stunt you know you see that kind of crap um rose i'm sure based on pressure he got from democratic colleagues was like okay like that's bullshit and i am locking the doors to the chamber while we're not in session which i've that's like unheard of but he was just like i'm shutting down so he's not making friends you know he's not in this to make a lot of friends and he's not making a lot of friends so the the problem is where it is where does anybody go from here what happens next and so after the special elections uh what you're gonna be next week there should be a clear democratic majority in the house yeah that doesn't solve mark rosey's problem and i think that that's where the pressure point lies here is there is an article in the a p today that says that he may not necessarily be looking to give up this kars gabble um to democratic leader joanna mc clinton who had been the caucuses pick for speaker the speaker designate um because without rose would be the hundred and second vote so he would have to actually agree vote to remove himself as speaker for another democrat it's you know that that's a that's a pretty you know that's a pretty big ask of the guy so what happens next the way i see it is is that mark rose came for a reason to harrisburg which was to get this issue resolved right this sexual assault victims it has been his issue since the minute he got there he will never have a better opportunity to get it done then he does sitting in the speaker's chair or the speaker's rostrum i've heard from folks and i get it that there's there's an argument to be made that if you're him you get what you came for however you need to get it yah m the problem that he has that no matter what happens in the house they need the senate to pass the senate passed the bill or resolution with all three amendments together it doesn't need the governor's signature or approval but it does need to be voted on by the house if the house amends it what the senate sent over to strip out just the two and stay with just the sexual salt one i'm ninety nine percent certain the senate would then have to approve that amended version in order for just the assault one to run the senate is not going to do that because that doesn't get the republicans what they want they want the vote or ide amendment they want the regulation regulatory amendment so that's really the pressure point i don't know what the only way to resolve this inside the state house is to pass the resolution sent up from the senate and do all three at once otherwise you've got to play ball you've got to get the center to play ball i don't know how that happens to be perfectly honest with you i don't see them that anxious to make a deal why would they be there's no there's nothing in it for them i for a while my worry or my gut instinct was that they would come to him and say okay will give you assault amendment in the spring on its own you give us the other two in the fall now conventional wisdom was oh the republican are going to want that the voter idea to run in the in the spring because they'll have a better chance of passing than in general i think that's that's a smoke screen because if you look at it's actually might actually be better the other way around because you know philly has a mayoral election this primary county executive in alleghany county a lot of heavily democratic cities like harrisburg lancaster that have city council type elections those elections are generally over in the primary so you you get a huge drop off yeah and off your elections in heavily democratic areas because there's just nothing to vote for right everything has already been decided and in order to beat vote or i d you are going to need those urban areas heavily blue areas a lot of heavily minority areas to show up vote against the voter idea amendment if they're not showing up in the fall anyway isn't that almost exactly what the republicans would want yeah so to me it almost felt like the republicans would quote give in but in reality get what they want it all along and if you're mark rose and you have been trying for twelve years to get this done and have been let down repeatedly by colleagues in both parties be clear about this you know the republicans have been in the majority but i'm telling you having been in the room some very awkward discussions there was a i partisan commitment to keep this thing the sexual assault amendment from becoming law we can talk about it much more detail later on i'm gonna have to get my notes and get my ducks in row legally before i say too much more but i'm telling you it mark rose has been failed by both democrats and republicans in trying to get this done and i'm sure no and obviously nobody knows it better than him yeah if you're him it's got to be damn appealing to get it done by any means necessary and the theory being that the state house is you know the state legislature is going to be a mess regardless but you do what you came to do and you declare victory and it's like the scene in batman where you know the joker walks away and everything burned not that i'm suggesting that mark rose should put on a nurse's outfit like and pain his face like heat ledger that would be pretty awesome to see but it's not the craziest idea now what's been floated what's been suggested what's been offered i don't know but we're rapidly running out of time as to to get anything done for the primary we can't go a whole lot longer without the house being in session although i do think it's hilarious there's this like you know this pearl clutching oh my god the house isn't going to be in session for a month does anybody know how much actually gets done early on in a session not a whole lot i mean the state house the only thing they have to do every year is pass a budget and that's in the end of june i mean so let's not pretend that there's like vital legislation that would be getting past otherwise that's just not accurate that's just not reality so what happens now m i don't know so the other thing is so in response to all this speaker rose put together this uh this working group three rank and file members from each side and they did this like they're going on like a state wide listening tour m to try to come up with by partis instead of rules and all this i think that quite honestly is kind of a joke it's a pr stunt by and by bringing in three rank and file members from each side with the thought that they're going to basically go back and tell the caucus leadership on both sides what to do and they're going to do it yeah incredibly naive anybody that knows how that place works knows that's not there's a reason that those those members aren't in leadership and there you know unless it's just absolutely the most minor little tweaks if it's anything substantial they're just not going to go for it um and i say that given you know at least to one of the members on the on the committee right i find i personally can't take it seriously and the other thing is these listening sessions got real crazy and that you know it was a good it's been a good spring board for good government groups and interest groups to go on about you know things are far beyond but it also took a very odd turn last week when a lobbyist uh when i made an allegation of sexual harassment against a sitting lawmaker arty name as yet unknown um but you know that but like a whole other can of worms um you know about how that could be dealt with and what the implications of that could be you there's a lot of moving parts here but i feel like this this speaker's working group is just window dressing i don't don't i don't know if it was delay tactic i don't know what it is but we're getting to the point where the rubber is going to met the road because after these special elections after the assuming the three democrats win and they're sworn in then what you have a democratic majority although it is telling and i thought a bit odd that rose made it clear that he would not caucus with the democrats and you know the thing was oh well that that's not what the speaker does that's no that's not true the speaker always caucuses with their party always now on the floor there you know they're supposed to be you know kind of working for everybody and impartial and whatever but even that's not reality i mean i've seen numerous times where you know republican speakers terse was infamous for this i mean we just straight up ignore the rules and just you know ran through partizan you know partisan agenda um because it's a self governing body there's no one to complain to like there's no you know they make the rules they could break the rules you might not like it but i've seen it happen more times i can count so that's also been a little disingenuous this thought that the you know the speaker doesn't cacus with his or her own party yeah they do they do i've seen it everybody knows it so i'm not quite sure what exactly the end game that that speaker rose is looking to achieve here i'm not sure he knows what it is i do think that if there is a clear path to get his amendment past i think that something democrats should be worried about would he basically throw out you know the i don't know is the baby in the bath water don't know if that's the right analogy here but would he basically eat voter idea and the regulatory amendment to get the sexual assault amendment i don't know as of right now it doesn't seem like it but who knows that you now right now it's easy because everybody s kind of in a holding weight and see pattern that's going to change after these three special elections now should also be noted if again there just weren't enough enough layers to this onion should also be noted that there is a there is a republican state rep who just want a special election to fill vacant senate seat so there will be one less republican member fairly soon i'm not sure what i don't think they've figured out the time line for any of that but i don't think that will matter really i mean it's really you're going a have you're going to be a hundred and one democrats ah either a hundred or a hundred and one republicans and then speaker rose who you know the question is is he a democrat is he forging his own path does he have this votes to remain speaker you know i mean he's kind of like pissing off everybody but is he doing it in a way that he's going to have grudging respect i mean there's a lot here you know also given the fact that democratic leader joanna mc clinton was slated to be the first woman and the first woman of color to become speaker in the state house that cannot be ignored that's certainly a big factor here um m mark rosey's a white guy not the best optics to a lot of folks and remember mc clinton was chosen by the caucus internally they said she's the pick and rose presumably supported that so lots and lots of moving parts nobody knows exactly what's going to happen there's been a lot about this on all sides that i think have made the carcases look not great um and we can talk about those specific pressure points along the way at some point but you know my thought was this if you were the democrats your first you you needed to look at this as though there's the hypocratic oath first rule do no harm the one thing you did not want to see happen was the republicans to get the gavel any way shape or form and advance that vote or idea amendment that was the one thing you're like whatever happens don't let that thing happen there were ways they could have potentially avoided that i don't know if it was there were a lot of people out there both inside and outside the building who were doing a lot of head scratching as some of this strategy was playing out not to say it was wrong because no one knows how it's goin to turn out and obviously everybody's privy to different information and different different strategies but there have been a lot of questions that ave been asked and i don't think anybody quite knows the answer yet but if the goal was to keep the keep the republicans from having any control i don't know if that's been accomplished or not but we shall see and i think the one thing that we can be certain of is more uncertainty right no matter what you think is going to happen it probably is not going to happen because that's just how that institution functions i mean they just cannot they just can't get out of their own damn way democrat probably doesn't matter it's just i mean just the way the institution is and lower legislative chambers are messy often by design it's not so this isn't necesarily a knock on people or the or whatever it's just super hard to get anything done in that building and even under normal circumstances and these are far from normal circumstances the problem is the stakes are different for many different people and factions they're not being very well defined publicly there's no clear unity in a lot of this this is a lot more nuance than a lot of people think you know in terms of what's going to happen next their issues about committee chairs and you know everybody's everybody's looking out for themselves has someone who know work there you kind of have to do right it's you can get stepped on very easily as as the late and would be a good way to bring a full circle is the late tony de luca once said uh you know everybody has got to get their beak wet and i think right now there's a lot of folks figuring out the best way to do that and there's a lot of joking at the at the bird feeder so that's where it sits um if you have any questions about this please drop some comments we are i'm doing something a little different instead of doing just an audio podcast i'm doing audio video that seems to be a model that people seem to enjoy so um you know and of course who wouldn't want to look at this face constantly right um so we're going to do a combination of audio and video experiment with some live streams um there's a lot of different things we can do but i want to just kind of get this little this little threshold went out and out into the ether in the meantime please check out or the keston recording pack which is keystone recording project stone recording dot com that's a political action committee where we work to really do very brash and bold messaging to help get democrats elected up and down the ballet including an off years like this one also check out our partner true blue gear dot com that is swag t shirts everything else for democratic and progressive causes that we work with and if you get a chance please like and follow on social media at keston recording and also give us a positive review on the podcast on apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast so until next time this is jessie white and i look forward to speaking with you than much