Special elections required to fill two Pa. House seats

    The general election is long over, but because some Pennsylvania candidates ran successfully for two offices at the same time, a pair of special elections will have to be scheduled.

    Two state House seats that will be up for grabs in the next two months.

    One seat will be vacated in mid-January, when Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York, resigns from the House to be sworn in as auditor general.

    He was elected in November, but also re-elected to his House seat.

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    DePasquale says his office isn’t rushing to finish constituent casework or anything.

    “We were being pretty adamant, you know, keeping up with that stuff even during the campaign so we don’t have much of a backlog here,” he said Wednesday. “I mean, certainly, there’s some work that needs to get done and we’re going to make sure it gets done.”

    The other seat that will be open is now held by Rep. Matt Smith, D-Allegheny, who was elected to the state Senate as he simultaneously ran unopposed in his House district. He says he’ll resign at the end of the legislative session Nov. 30.

    Calling for special elections falls to the chamber’s majority leader next month, and to the speaker in January.

    But there’s no word on when the special elections will be announced.

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