In the state primary on May 18, Gov. Tom Wolf encouraged Pennsylvanians to vote “No” on two state constitutional amendments limiting the governor’s emergency declaration powers.
The questions asked voters to end a governor’s emergency disaster declaration after 21 days and to give lawmakers the sole authority to extend it or end it at any time with a simple majority vote.
Before Election Day, the constitution required a two-thirds majority vote by lawmakers to end a governor’s disaster declaration and, legally, the governor could issue an emergency declaration for up to 90 days and extend it without limit.
Unfortunately voters sided with Republican lawmakers angry over Wolf’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. Voters made Pennsylvania the first state in the nation to curb their governor’s emergency powers.
The vote came as Republican lawmakers across the country have sought to roll back the emergency powers governors wielded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some Republicans see the referendum as a victory with strong political overtones, as the state gears up for a wide-open governor’s race in 2022 and Wolf leaving office after two terms. That may be reading too much into the vote on the ballot questions.
Still, Republicans in the state Legislature and those aiming to replace him in 2023 are likely to continue to make Wolf their top political target and are expected to repeatedly attack his stewardship during the pandemic, including his orders shuttering businesses, sending students home for online schooling and ordering that masks be worn outside the home.
“Last night, Pennsylvanians voted to reject Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s overreach of executive powers after his failed COVID response — a clear sign of accountability coming in 2022,” Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel tweeted Wednesday morning.
The two questions led with almost 54% of the vote, with 75% of precincts reporting. More than 2 million ballots were cast, still less than a quarter of the state’s 8.7 million registered voters.
But was the vote a rejection of Wolf or a reflection of the difficulty of defeating a ballot question. The last time voters rejected a ballot question was in 1993.
The amendments cannot take effect until the state certifies the election result, which could take until early June.
Republicans have falsely accused Wolf of fear-mongering. But Republicans are playing politics with the governor’s reasonable response to a pandemic.
Wolf and his emergency disaster director are right to call the emergency disaster proposals reckless and a threat to a functioning society that could prevent a fast and wide-ranging response to increasingly complicated disasters.
But the courts rejected repeated attempts to end the governor’s disaster declaration or lift his orders, and Democratic lawmakers largely stuck with Wolf, leaving Republicans without a large enough majority to override his actions.
Restricting the governor’s authority to make a disaster declaration in a crisis is shortsighted.
Republicans claim the governor cannot order shutdowns without an emergency declaration in effect. Wolf disagrees, saying a governor’s authority during a public health emergency rests on separate public health law and is unaffected by the ballot questions. As a result the issue may end up in court.
Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune
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