Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG - Rep. Dennis M. O'Brien's service in the state House dates back to the 1970s and includes chairmanship of three separate legislative committees.
He is no obscure backbencher, but who could have been prepared for the history making deal in January that elevated the Philadelphia Republican, out of the blue, to speaker of the Democrat-controlled chamber?
His life hasn't been the same since.
"I walked across the ball field where my kids play, the local youth organization," he recalled. "I was going to the gym which many years ago I was helpful in building. All of a sudden all these kids turn and start clapping. They were clapping for me. It was unbelievable."
O'Brien's first move was to charter a commission that has produced an array of since-adopted recommendations to make the House's actions more accessible to the public.
He helped usher through a bitterly fought state budget that more than tripled funding for autism services, one of his favorite causes.
And he learned, on the job, the finer points of parliamentary procedure at a time when some fellow Republicans were in no mood to go easy on the man they blame for empowering their opponents. Procedural debates have been testy, at times even nasty.
"I believe that the logic used behind some of the reasons has deprived him of the ability to claim he's being evenhanded," said Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh. "The reasons for some of the rulings stretches the bounds of credulity."
O'Brien, 55, insists he did not take the speakership deal from personal ambition.
"I believed that the process had to be changed," he said. "I had an opportunity to bring my issues to the forefront. And some people who liked the system the way it was before probably never liked me and never will."
Likability, in fact, is widely seen as one of O'Brien's strengths as speaker. It's a trait that's particularly valuable in Harrisburg at a time when a single seat separates the parties in the House, Republicans control the Senate and a Democrat resides in the governor's mansion.
"He's a very amicable individual, he is not an ideologue and he's a straight shooter," said Greg Fajt, chief of staff to Gov. Ed Rendell and a former Democratic state representative who served with O'Brien. "When you make a deal with Denny, you have a deal, because he gives you his word."
Rep. Josh Shapiro, who recruited O'Brien to be speaker, co-chaired the reform commission and serves as his deputy speaker, said O'Brien runs the chamber in a way that allows wide-open debate while still getting things accomplished.
"It is working," said Shapiro, D-Montgomery.
"And I think the speaker showed that in the final three, four weeks of session where there was a host of legislation moving forward."
One of the six Republicans who voted for O'Brien as speaker, Rep. Curt Schroder, R-Chester, said O'Brien's advocacy on behalf of disabled children is one of the ways he differs from his predecessor, Rep. John M. Perzel, R-Philadelphia.
"Agree with it or not, I think it's refreshing to see a speaker who is concerned with making those kinds of accomplishments as opposed to power issues, collecting power and consolidating power," Schroder said.
Neither Perzel nor House Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, returned messages seeking comment.
A final verdict on the unusual power-sharing arrangement will have to wait, but early results are promising, said Steve Peterson, who directs Penn State-Harrisburg's school of public affairs.
"There was a chance this arrangement could be 'crash and burn,' but the wheels seems to have stayed on the car," Peterson said.
O'Brien was promised a two-year term by Democratic leaders, but if 2008 election results widen their current 102-101 margin, the Democrats may want to replace him with someone from within their own ranks. A leading contender would be Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, who held the position for a couple years in the 1990s.
Perzel, "speaker emeritus" since Republicans lost eight seats and the majority last year, also could return to the speakership in 2009 if his party stages a comeback -- or even earlier if he can gather enough Democratic votes.
O'Brien says he wants to keep the job.
"I can see why John Perzel, Bill DeWeese, or anybody would want to hold onto this," O'Brien said. "It's got its prestige. We all have different styles in how we would use it."