History-making Speaker Joanna McClinton talks priorities and other issues

• Scott LaMar
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  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 Tim Tai / Philadelphia Inquirer

State Rep. Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) has said she will stand for speaker and expects all lawmakers, regardless of party, to support her as Democrats won a majority of seats in the November election.

Airdate: March 6, 2023

History was made last week when Democratic State Representative Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Representative McClinton became the first woman and first woman of color to become speaker in the more than 200 year history of the legislative body.

Speaker McClinton takes over the most powerful position in the House when Democrats have a one vote majority and at a time when partisanship flourishes.

Appearing on The Spark Monday, Speaker Joanna McClinton talked about what kind of Speaker she will be,”My goal is to really be a speaker that brings decorum to the House in a way that Pennsylvanians are proud. The House is the people’s House. So it’s often very rowdy neighbors, constituents, voters, they can if they choose to listen in, they can hear some of the boos, loud boos or selective sighs. But one thing that’s concerned me in the short time that I’ve been in the House is that there are many times when the institution…some of the ways people personalize arguments on the floor of the House. So I look forward to being a speaker for the entire chamber that reflects the historical nature of our institution and the things we’ve been able to accomplish in the past, and most importantly, provides the example so that fair decisions are made when we’re in debates and folks know that this isn’t a partisan post. It’s not like my last job where I was the Democratic floor leader. This is a job where it’s for the institution.”

McClinton pointed to bipartisanship when she spoke on the floor of the House last week. She was asked how she will foster bipartisanship,”You seek it by getting to know people, taking the time to hear what their concerns are, and most importantly, to allow them to bring you up to speed with why they ran in the first place. What is going on in their part of the state that led them to even seek this opportunity? I mean, we have to really develop relationships off the floor so that when we get to the floor, we can be the best version of ourselves and really showing the type of decorum or professionalism that the institution deserves.”

McClinton indicated she has legislative priorities — even though there may be push back from Republicans,”We want to make sure that we have an agenda that supports a long overdue raising the minimum wage. We want to make sure we support an agenda that provides full opportunity for folks to be able to have access to organized labor and representation in a union. And we are going to be supporting an agenda that ends misclassification of workers, particularly in the construction industry. We know how deadly that can be with some corporate entities trying to cut costs and not negotiate through labor unions and get unskilled workers to do jobs that they do not have the training to do. We also want to look at our school system. We want to make sure our children, Pennsylvania’s children, are promised the opportunity to a good school wherever they live. So we’ve got to work through this budget process that’ll be coming up to ensure that our students see the real thing in all of our public dollars in their classrooms.”

Speaker McClinton is already facing criticism from Republicans for how allegations of sexual harassment by two women against Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel of Delaware County have been handled. Republicans say Democrats called for the resignations of two of their members, who were accused of sexual misconduct, but yet the now Democratic majority hasn’t demanded Zabel resign. McClinton responded,”We did have some private conversations with the member that we’re discussing — Representative Zabel — asking for him to consider resigning because of the distraction, because of the challenges, because it’s more than one person. And we are respecting his response where he said instead of resigning, he wants to be able to take care of some behavioral health issues that unfortunately, he is dealing with at the moment. And I want to be clear that in the circumstances regarding prior folks to be called down, they were not the same. It was very different.”