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A couple of months ago I sent an email to my followers regarding the “porcupining” of our state constitution. The tongue-in-cheek metaphor was referencing the Harrisburg Republican efforts to evade checks and balances in our system by placing a plethora of amendments on the ballot making our Pennsylvania constitution look like a porcupine loaded with quills. The mechanics for this tactic rests in the fact that the constitution allows the legislature to put amendments on the ballot without the possibility of a gubernatorial veto. One can only assume the delegates to the 1968 Constitutional Convention could not foresee a legislature so radicalized through gerrymandering that it would abuse the constitutional amendment process. Unfortunately, the process also allows the majority to manipulate the system further by placing amendments on the ballot in our lowest turnout elections giving their radicalized Republican base more influence in the process. A Republican workaround for failed legislation In the last days of the current legislative session prior to our summer recess, Republicans in the House and Senate passed a bill containing 5 amendments to the constitution, including the particularly egregious amendment declaring the state constitution doesn’t provide any right to an abortion in the Commonwealth. Khalif Ali, the Executive Director of Common Cause, in a guest editorial published in Penn Live, got it right when he said “Our constitutional amendment process was never meant to be a workaround for failed legislation or to threaten the courts into doing the legislature’s bidding.” Yet, that is what is happening. To make matters worse, the Republican majority is using the amendment tactic to undermine the powers of the executive branch and the courts. In just one year of this two-year legislative cycle, more than 70 constitutional amendments have been proposed and nearly one-third of them targeted the powers of the other two branches of government. Compare that to the preceding two-year legislative session when only 70 amendments were proposed with just three addressing the powers of the executive and judicial branches of our system. Apparently, the success of the constitutional amendments passed in the 2021 Municipal Primary Election limiting the Governor’s emergency powers has whetted the appetite of the radicalized Republican majority to go after the power of the other two branches of government which may act as a check against their extremist agenda. Manipulating the calendar Traditionally, our lowest turnout regularly scheduled elections are Municipal Primaries when local and judicial elections are held. Since the passage of the state constitution in 1968, 49 amendments have made the ballot, only 14 of those were voted on in higher turnout presidential and gubernatorial election years and only 6 of the 49 have failed to pass. Thus, if you represent a radicalized base of voters pushing a minority point of view and you want to sneak an unpopular amendment by a majority of citizens who aren’t paying full attention, the best time to do it is in a Municipal Primary. That is exactly how the Republican majority in legislature has set up their amendment to strip Pennsylvanians of their abortion rights. The critical urgency of now It is possible, I would go so far as to say likely, voters in Pennsylvania will turn out to defeat an amendment stripping Pennsylvanians of their right to obtain an abortion. A better path is to stop the abortion amendment and others in the legislature in the next session. Pennsylvania law requires a constitutional amendment to pass in two consecutive sessions of the legislature before it goes on the ballot. That means the abortion amendment and others will have to pass again in 2023, when a new legislature is sworn after the 2022 election. To stop the amendment in its tracks in the next legislative session, we must win a majority in one or both chambers in the 2022 General Election. If we can win a majority in either the House or Senate, we can stop the rightwing Republican efforts to topple Democracy by manipulating our constitution via an onslaught of right-wing constitutional amendments. And, we can save our constitutional right to reproductive health. We must elect a new majority in the Pennsylvania House – now. Thanks for reading, Kristine |