Rep. Sturla has been a leadership member longer than that, as he was a member of the team under former Majority Leader Todd Eachus, back when I was involved. Rep. Dermody has been in charge for the four years since, and the results haven't been great. In 2008, when I was at HDCC as field director, we won 104 seats that year. In six years, we've lost 20 seats. Democrats aren't even in range to get back the majority now. They'd need a cycle with a pick-up of 18 seats. That didn't even happen in 2006.“It’s kinda incomprehensible that you could have a Republican Caucus that pretty much voted 100 percent with a governor that lost by 10 points and they would pick up eight seats,” Sturla told Zwick.Rep. Dermody isn’t backing down, though, as he is defending his tenure by asserting that the election results show they were able to highlight Gov. Corbett’s harmful policies.“I’m disappointed because Mike’s been a partner in our leadership team the last four years, but if he wants to have this fight then let’s have it,” Dermody said of Sturla.
I generally think a leadership challenge in this case is at least worth the debate. Perhaps Rep. Dermody is the right guy to lead the caucus, but I don't think claiming the governor's race makes up for losing eight seats is a reasonable excuse. In general, PA House Democrats have been slow to make changes in the past (see DeWeese, Bill). I think that's a mistake. The goal of a minority party is to get back the majority, and for a majority party it is to pass bills and gain seats. Right now, we're not anywhere near a majority, or even competing for one, and we're not passing anything or making gains. I'm not sold yet that a change should be made, but I'm certainly sympathetic enough to the cause to say it's worth hearing out.
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