State Rep. Kevin Boyle is present and accounted for — at least in Harrisburg

As I write this column, State Rep. Kevin Boyle is a fugitive from justice, accused of violating a restraining order. By the time you read this, the Philadelphia Democrat may be in jail. He may still be on the lam. He may be institutionalized. But one thing is certain: He will still — even though he is nowhere near the state Capitol — be a reliable vote for his party’s agenda in Harrisburg.

How is this possible?

It’s because of House Rule 66A, one of a number of rule changes passed when Democrats took control of the state House in 2023 by a one-vote margin. The new rule is an exception to Rule 66, which appeared in previous sessions’ rules and holds that “except as provided in the rules of the House, no member shall vote for another member, nor shall any person not a member vote for a member.” That makes sense: We elected these people to vote on legislation, and we should expect them to show up and do the job.

Rule 66A is the exception that swallows the rule. Since 2023, “a member who is not present in the Hall of the House may designate either the Majority or Minority Whip to cast the member’s vote on any question.” (Emphasis added.)

Proxy voting in committee votes existed before this — members sometimes missed a committee meeting but could allow a proxy vote so that legislation was not unduly delayed. During the pandemic, the House authorized remote voting, but the individual members still had to log on and cast their own ballots. But this sweeping rule is new and unprecedented.

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Now, members can be sworn into office, delegate the party whips to vote for them, and go home for two years. Why even have a legislature?

It is true that many issues are decided on party-line votes, but when we elect our senators and representatives, we are not just voting for a party, we are voting for an individual person who lives in an individual district. Not every Democrat is the same, nor is every Republican. The state constitution recognizes that and requires that members live in the district that elects them. It doesn’t make sense that, once elected, they can hand their voting power off to someone from another district.

Some countries do use “party-list” voting to fill some of the seats in their legislature. Voters in the Netherlands elect their entire lower house this way — part of the reason they have 15 political parties in it. We don’t have this system in Pennsylvania. If we did, Republicans would run the state House, having won the statewide House vote by more than 350,000 votes in 2022. But the close races in 2022 broke in the Democrats’ favor, giving them the narrow majority they now hold. And this proxy-voting rule is one of the ways they continue to hold on to power, despite not having a majority of members show up on any given day.

Unbelievably, when Republicans challenged the Democrats’ power to vote in Boyle’s name while he evades capture, Boyle was able to “vote” on the question of his own eligibility, despite no one in either caucus having any idea where he is.

So much for preserving democracy.

A legislature without legislators is pointless. Voting on proposed legislation is a part of the job — maybe the most important part — and outsourcing that responsibility is already an abdication of duty. But there is more to being a legislator than the yeas and nays. They also sit on committees that draft legislation and investigate issues. They hear from expert witnesses who advise them on the potential consequences of the bills they vote on. That all requires showing up to work.

Legislators also perform constituent services. Many have poked fun at the idea of a legislature where members “work about 50 days a year and get paid a starting salary of $100,000,” but we all know that the “work” extends beyond the voting session. Here, Boyle also falls down on the job. As GOP State Rep. Martina White told The Inquirer after Boyle’s latest brush with the law, “I get his constituents calling my office almost daily, because no one is answering their phone at Kevin Boyle’s office.”

My own visit to Boyle’s district office last week confirmed this. The door was locked, and multiple signs claimed the staff there were “currently working appointment only.” The only other thing posted in the windows was, ironically, a crime alert from the Philadelphia Police Department.

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Boyle has “a serious mental health condition,” his brother, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, says. He does not say exactly what those problems are, and our societal conventions hold that it is rude to ask. We should all sympathize and wish him the best in his recovery. But it is fair to wonder: At what point do these repeated incidents of lawbreaking stop the man from serving his constituents?

In normal times, in a normal legislature, everyone would agree that Boyle’s situation is untenable. But Speaker Joanna McClinton and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford have a one-vote majority and will stretch the rules to the breaking point to hold on to it. They already changed the rules at the beginning of the session to redefine “majority” so that even if they lose a member to death or resignation, a rump minority party could still cling to power.

When such a Democratic vacancy did occur earlier this year, they took no chances, adjourning the House until a replacement was elected (Democratic leadership claimed the timing was coincidental, and that they were taking off for three months because the roof was leaking).

Someone should have brought Rule 66A to McClinton’s attention then — she could have gotten all of her members to vote by proxy, letting her pass legislation while avoiding the existential threat of getting rained on.

Every partisan wants to remain in power, and many will stretch the law to do so (see: former President Donald Trump’s pending trial in Georgia.) But eliminating the role of individual legislators entirely goes too far.

Boyle should resign and get the help he needs. And the House of Representatives should be run by its members — not by proxies and rule twisting.