Harrisburg showed ‘stunning’ bipartisanship. Three ways to help ensure that continues.

In marked contrast to the dysfunction on display at the U.S. Capitol, a pitched battle for control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives ended last week in a stunning moment of bipartisanship and attention to duty. State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Democrat from Berks County, was chosen by a 115-85 vote to become speaker, garnering 16 GOP supporters including the outgoing Republican speaker, Bryan Cutler. This outcome was remarkable.

There are few instances in history where the Pennsylvania House’s highest-ranking official — charged with presiding over the chamber and managing the legislative process — is selected in a truly bipartisan manner.

» READ MORE: Mark Rozzi’s secret deal to become Pa. House speaker isn’t the first time he’s left allies reeling

Just last month, a fight over several special elections to fill three vacant seats erupted in Harrisburg and quickly involved the courts. Charges of voter disenfranchisement and a “paperwork insurrection” were traded in the typically sedate days of the holiday season, signaling not only a troubled start for the 2023 General Assembly but a risk that, amid the chaos, a temporary majority might advance controversial changes to the state’s constitution that were initially passed as a bundle in the middle of the night last summer.

Thanks to the last-minute maneuvering, such immediate concerns of escalating partisan warfare may have receded. For the time being.

“Immediate concerns of escalating partisan warfare may have receded. For the time being.”

We’re still learning how such a bipartisan vote for House speaker came together, but the foundation was built long before this week. State Rep. Rozzi was nominated by Blair County Republican State Rep. Jim Gregory, who worked closely with Rozzi for years on legislation to help childhood victims of sexual abuse seek legal redress. Their shared trust and commitment to problem-solving may have saved Pennsylvanians months of wasted time and partisan acrimony.

The question now is how to build on this moment of bipartisanship. Three steps would help:

A report by the Bipartisan Policy Center and Fair Vote found Pennsylvania to be among the worst in the country in legislative procedure that encourages collaborative policymaking. The #FixHarrisburg campaign has championed reforms to shift power away from partisan gatekeepers and toward those lawmakers working across the aisle. Bills with bipartisan support, for example, deserve a vote in committee and on the chamber floor, and should not be able to be blocked by committee chairs, caucus leaders, or the House speaker. Reforming these rules should be one of Speaker Rozzi’s top priorities.

After taking the helm, State Rep. Rozzi pledged not to caucus with either party and said he would become an independent in his new role. But more than one million registered voters in Pennsylvania who aren’t registered as Democrat or Republican are still not allowed to vote for candidates in the primary elections that they pay for, and that so often determine who their elected representatives are. The legislature can and should change this system to allow independents with no party affiliation to vote in the primary. With a self-declared independent leading our state House, now is the time.

Over the last several years, once mundane voting procedures have become politicized and controversial, threatening election integrity and dampening some voters’ trust in elections and even their own local officials. Allowing counties more time to process ballots so we get results faster and closing the door on frivolous recounts are just two of a litany of changes that would mitigate the misinformation that’s enveloped our elections.

Beyond specific reforms in the law or lawmaking, our elected officials must maintain a commitment to work in good faith within and between their partisan caucuses, challenging as this will become amid future quarrels in Harrisburg and during this hyperpartisan era. But this is possible.

As State Rep. Gregory declared while nominating his friend from the other side of the aisle, it’s “time to put aside the letters that come after our names, and it’s time to focus on the title that comes in front of them: We are representatives. We are representatives of the people who send us here … [and] it is time to put aside the primacy of our parties and find common ground for the people of this commonwealth.”

Pat Christmas is the chief policy officer for the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan advocate for better government in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.