Breaking: Joanna McClinton elected first female speaker of the Pa. House as Mark Rozzi steps down

[Deminpenn]

2. More from the SpotlightPA story

in the Tribune-Review:

Within a week of Rozzi’s election, his closest Republican ally, state Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair County, called for his resignation from the speakership. At the same time, Rozzi regularly met with state House Democratic leaders.

Speaking to Spotlight PA Tuesday morning, Rozzi said he went into the deal aware that Republicans were trying to use him, and he decided that they “were gonna pay for it.”

“There’s a lot of things wrong with Harrisburg. And the way I was elected speaker, that’s a prime description of what is wrong with Harrisburg because the Republicans had a majority at that time,” Rozzi said. “But they tried to manipulate, hoodwink, snooker the members of this General Assembly by electing me, thinking that I would do their bidding for them. That I would turn against my party.”

former Speaker Rozzi. You did a great service to the Commonwealth by keeping Rs from passing bills for rw-approved constitutional amendments that would limit the right to vote and other nefarious things.