Seth Grove, a Republican state representative from the 196th district in York County resigned on Jan 31. following allegations of a conflict of interest.
Grove has served in the state House since 2009 and announced in May that he would not seek reelection to a tenth term in office. In light of his impending retirement, on Jan. 1 Grove took a position as president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Aggregates and Concrete Association, a trade group that also conducts lobbying activities. Issues arose with Grove’s new job because he is also the minority chair of the Labor and Industry Committee.
Democrats accused Grove of a conflict of interest because his committee’s jurisdiction overlaps with the affairs of his new job. He denied the conflict and said that he would recuse himself from legislative actions if necessary.
When asked by abc27’s Dennis Owens on Jan. 28 whether he would resign given the scrutiny he was under, Grove said he would be able to perform both jobs faithfully and would not resign, citing the costs of holding the requisite special election to fill his seat. Mere hours later, Grove announced that he would resign in the coming days.
Despite being a full-time legislature, more than half of the members in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives hold other jobs including lawyers and business owners.
Grove’s resignation leaves the closely divided state House with five total vacancies. Democrats now enjoy a two-seat majority with 100 seats, to Republicans’ 98. The four other vacancies came after Democrat Dan Miller and Republicans Lou Schmitt and Torren Ecker were elected as county judges and Democrat Joshue Siegel was elected as Lehigh County executive in November.
Vacancies have dogged the narrowly divided state House’s operations for the past two legislative sessions. Following the 2022 election, Democrats won a surprise one-seat majority after more than a decade out of power. However, three Democratic vacancies existed due to two members being concurrently elected to higher offices and one member dying less than a month before the election.
These vacancies gave Republicans the numerical majority and spurred a dispute over which party had rightful control of the chamber. A compromise was reached to elect moderate Democrat Mark Rozzi as speaker given that he would lead the chamber as an independent. He did not, irking the Republicans who supported him. The state House conducted little business under Rozzi and he resigned less than two months into the speakership after the vacancies were filled through special elections.
A similar saga was avoided after the 2024 election when Democrats managed to keep the same one-seat majority. Over the intervening holiday season, Allegheny County Representative Matthew Gergely suffered a medical emergency and passed away a month later. Gergely’s absence left the state House evenly divided. Rather than prolong a power struggle, Republican leader Jesse Topper withdrew from speaker consideration on the second ballot and allowed Democrats to assert control over the chamber.
Special elections to fill Miller and Siegel’s seats will be held on Feb. 24. The elections to fill Schmitt and Ecker’s seats will be held on March 17. A special election to fill Grove’s seat will coincide with the regularly scheduled primary election on May 19. All seats are predicted to be won by the parties of the previous occupants.
