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FIRST EDITION PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS By John J. Kennedy Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Kassie Graves, Director of Acquisitions and Sales Jamie Giganti, Senior Managing Editor Jess Estrella, Senior Graphic Designer John Remington, Senior Field Acquisitions Editor Monika Dziamka, Project Editor Brian Fahey, Senior Licensing Specialist Christian Berk, Associate Production Editor Joyce Lue, Interior Designer Copyright © 2018 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, repro- duced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. For inquiries regarding permissions, translations, foreign rights, audio rights, and any other forms of reproduction, please contact the Cognella Licensing Department at [email protected]. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Cover image copyright © 2012 by iStockphoto LP / Dwight Nadig. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-5165-0158-8 (pbk) / 978-1-5165-0159-5 (br) To my mom and the memory of my dad CONTENTS DEDICATION III LIST OF TABLES VII LIST OF FIGURES IX LIST OF MAPS XI LIST OF BOXES XIII PREFACE XV CHAPTER 1 A PROFILE OF PENNSYLVANIA 1 CHAPTER 2 POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA 33 CHAPTER 3 THE PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTION 79 CHAPTER 4 THE PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY 91 CHAPTER 5 THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH IN PENNSYLVANIA 117 CHAPTER 6 THE PENNSYLVANIA JUDICIARY 133 CHAPTER 7 LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN PENNSYLVANIA 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY 160 NOTES 162 INDEX 164 List of Tables Table 1.1 Pennsylvania State Symbols Table 1.2 Pennsylvania’s Population Since 1950 Table 1.3 Population and Rank of Pennsylvania Counties Table 1.4 Pennsylvania Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas Table 1.5 Racial Composition of Pennsylvania Counties Table 1.6 Foreign-Born Population by Country of Origin, 2010 Table 1.7 Ancestry Table 1.8 Religious Composition of Pennsylvania Table 1.9 Ranking of States by Highest Median Age Table 1.10 Current Employment Statistics for Pennsylvania Table 1.11 Unemployment Rate in Pennsylvania As Compared with National Rate Table 1.12 Ranking of Unemployed in Pennsylvania Counties Table 2.1 Party System in United States and Pennsylvania History Table 2.2 Voter Registration in Pennsylvania, January 2017 Table 2.3 Pennsylvania Voter Registration Totals Since 1950 Table 2.4 Democratic Party Plurality of Registrants by Region Table 2.5 Party Registration in the Southeast Suburbs Since 1950 Table 2.6 Party Registration in the Southwest Since 1950 Table 2.7 Comparison of Presidential Elections in Pennsylvania to National Results Table 2.8 Presidential Election Results in Southeastern Pennsylvania Table 2.9 Presidential Election Results in Southwestern Pennsylvania Table 2.10 Presidential Election Results in Northeastern Pennsylvania Table 2.11 Presidential Election Results in Northampton County Table 2.12 Presidential Elections Results in Pennsylvania’s Central “T” Table 2.13 Pennsylvania’s Elected Governors Since 1950 Table 2.14 Pennsylvania’s United States Senators Since 1950 Table 2.15 Partisan Distribution of Seats in Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation Table 2.16 Pennsylvania’s Elected Attorneys General Since 1980 Table 2.17 Pennsylvania’s Elected State Treasurers Since 1950 Table 2.18 Pennsylvania Auditors-General Since 1950 Table 2.19 Partisan Breakdown of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives VII Table 2.20 Partisan Breakdown of the Pennsylvania Senate Table 2.21 Voter Turnout in Pennsylvania Compared with the National Average Table 2.22 State Primary System by Type Table 3.1 Organization of the Pennsylvania Constitution Table 4.1 Professionalism Rating of State Legislatures Table 4.2 Categories of Professionalism Table 4.3 State Legislatures Ranked Nationally by Salary Table 4.4 Number of Women in State Legislatures by National Ranking Table 4.5 Partisan Composition of Women in the Fifty State Legislatures, 2015 Table 4.6 Standing Committees in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Table 4.7 Standing Committees in the Pennsylvania Senate Table 4.8 Joint Committees in the Pennsylvania Legislature Table 4.9 Self-Identified Occupation of Pennsylvania Legislators Table 5.1 The Governor’s Staff Table 5.2 Independent Executive Agencies Table 6.1 Justices on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Table 6.2 Judges on the Pennsylvania Superior Court Table 6.3 Judges on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Table 6.4 Judicial Selection Methods in the United States Table 7.1 Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Table 7.2 Municipal Plan Options in Pennsylvania Table 7.3 Commission-Type Third-Class Cities Table 7.4 Mayor-Council Type Municipalities Table 7.5 Council-Manager Type Municipalities VIII List of Figures Figure 1.1 Pennsylvania Racial Composition Figure 2.1 Bucks County Registration Since 1950 Figure 2.2 Chester County Registration Since 1950 Figure 2.3 Delaware County Registration Since 1950 Figure 2.4 Montgomery County Registration Since 1950 Figure 2.5 Southeast Registration Since 1950 Figure 2.6 Southwest Registration Since 1950 Figure 3.1 The Process for Amending the Pennsylvania Constitution IX List of Maps Map 1.1 Pennsylvania Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas Map 2.1 Pennsylvania Counties by Majority Party, 1950 Map 2.2 Pennsylvania Counties by Majority Party, 1990 Map 2.3 Pennsylvania Counties by Majority Party, 2016 Map 2.4 Pennsylvania Political Regions Map 2.5 Pennsylvania Presidential Election Results, 1988 Map 2.6 Pennsylvania Presidential Election Results, 2012 Map 2.7 Pennsylvania Presidential Election Results, 2016 XI List of Boxes Box 4.1 Leadership Positions in the Pennsylvania Legislature Box 4.2 How a Bill Becomes a Law: The Textbook Version Box 4.3 How a Bill Becomes a Law: The Reality Version XIII PREFACE The idea for this book was planted roughly ten years ago, after I first began teaching a course on Pennsylvania Politics at West Chester University. It’s a class that I enjoy probably more than any other, and I’ve been fortunate to offer it as part of our Political Science Department’s Legislative Fellow Program. This has enabled state legislators to periodically come into the classroom and serve as joint instructors of the class with me. One problem I encountered, however, was that there really wasn’t an appropriate textbook to cover Pennsylvania’s government system. The Pennsylvania Manual, published by the Department of State in the commonwealth, provided some important relative information, but it wasn’t the type of book that students could really read through as text. I did use Historian Paul Beers’s landmark book Pennsylvania Politics, Today and Yesterday, and while that gave the class a tremendous amount of information on many of the historical figures in the state and students always enjoyed his colorful writing style and humorous anecdotes, the book itself was written forty years ago and still left a vacuum as far as statistical data and specific information on the government structures of the state. In conjunction with Beers’s book, the class also used one that I wrote, Pennsylvania Elections, which was originally published in 2004 and revised a decade later. While it may have filled the data gap as it pertained to elections in the state, it still did not address such areas as the state’s governmental institu- tions and processes. That finally changed two years ago when, in the process of wrapping up the revised edition of my elections book and pondering what to do next, John Remington of Cognella Books walked into my office one spring afternoon and asked whether I had any projects in mind for possible publication. After a long chat, we agreed to pursue a project that would eventually lead to this, Pennsylvania Government and Politics. We decided that the book should potentially serve as both a stand-alone text for a class in Pennsylvania politics or as a supplement for American Government or State and Local Government classes. XV xvi PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS That being considered, I’ve had two audiences in mind in the process of writing this book. The first is my students and those of other colleges and universities across the state; my hope is to provide them with a basic overview of the governmental institutions in the state, com- parisons that show how our state compares with others on a host of issues, and some updated statistical pieces relating election results and political trends. The other audience is composed of those like myself, interested in our state government, who finally have what I hope to be a miniature textbook on Pennsylvania’s government, one that almost every other state has seen published but one that this state had not been able to benefit from. I do hope that it satisfies that purpose. I want to thank those at Cognella Academic Publishing, in particular John Remington, for offering me this opportunity, and Monika Dziamka, who guided me through it. Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude towards each of the state lawmakers who’ve come to my classes and help educate all of us on the intricate ways of the Pennsylvania political system. I’d like to also acknowledge my students, whose curiosities continue to motivate me to be the best professor that I can. Also, my colleagues in the Department of Political Science at West Chester University, especially our Department Chair, Dr. Frauke Schnell, and Dr. Peter Loedel for their support in matters relating to this project and others. Also, administrative assistant Tara Easterling, who keeps me organized at the office and lets me know when I need to replace the office water bottle. Finally, Beau Ryck, a graduate student in the Geography Department, for doing such a great job in creating the various maps.