Talks Fail To Settle State House Control Fight

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A day of closed-door negotiations failed Wednesday to settle a dispute between Republican and Democratic leaders in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives about when to hold three special elections that will determine control of their chamber. Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer told lawyers for Rep. Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County, the House Republican leader, and his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia, that she will speed consideration of the case. “These are very, very thorny issues and cannot easily be resolved in a day,” she said when attorneys returned to the courtroom at day’s end. “I believe progress has been made.” Cutler sued earlier this month after McClinton sought to schedule special elections for all three races on Feb. 7. Cutler has also sought to schedule the special elections — one for Feb. 7 and the other two for the May primary. Democrats picked up a net of 12 seats in last month’s election, the minimum needed to reclaim majority control of the House after more than a decade in the minority. That left Democrats with 102 representatives to Republicans’ 101, but the three vacancies have given the GOP hopes of maintaining majority status early next year, if only for a few weeks or several months.