Amid the ongoing dispute over the county’s Republican committee, the incorporated committee issued a censure against state Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, R-12th.

Gary Vanasdale, the state-recognized chairman of the Butler County Republican Committee, said that no such censure has been officially enacted by the county GOP.

“(I am) the chairman of the real Butler County Republican Committee, recognized by the Pa. state GOP,” Vanasdale said. “We did not vote to censure anyone.”

According to Bill Halle, president of the incorporated committee, the censure of Scialabba is the result of her participation in the election of Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-126th, as state House of Representatives speaker.

Scialabba represents Cranberry, Jackson and Adams townships and Mars, Zelienople, Harmony, Seven Fields, Evans City, Callery and Valencia boroughs.

“In essence, they voluntarily gave up control and majority of the House by electing Rozzi in a deceptive move that happened in secret,” Halle said, “behind the backs of the rest of their House (Republican) members.”

The election of Rozzi as speaker happened Jan. 3 after both parties failed to reach a majority for their preferred candidates at the start of session.

The 32nd, 34th and 35th state House districts were won by Democratic candidates in November, giving them the majority. However, one winner died before Election Day and was unable to be removed from the ballot. The two other winners resigned to take higher offices.

The resulting Republican majority did little to determine the speaker. Without the seats, Democrats were unable to elect their choice of speaker: Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-191st, but Republicans — divided over their own first choice — were also unable to reach a majority for Rep. Carl Walker Metzgar, R-69th.

Simply adjourning — Scialabba said in a statement to her constituents — would have seen the House reconvene under a Democratic majority after special elections were held in the hiatus. And the decision of two Republican representatives, one of whom was Rep. Tom Mehaffie, R-106th, to oppose any Republican nomination left the party with few options, according to her statement.

“If Republican leadership did not nominate Rep. Rozzi,” Scialabba’s statement read, “then those two Republicans who refused to vote for a Republican were going to vote for Rep. Joanna McClinton.”

Rather than see the speakership go to McClinton, 16 House Republicans, including Scialabba, broke party lines to compromise on Rozzi, the expectation being that Rozzi would become an independent and not caucus with either party.

“Leadership pulled me and several other representatives aside and told us of their plan, which is why I voted with them,” Scialabba’s statement continued. “Unbeknownst to me, they did not communicate that to most of the Republican caucus.”

The state House has seen very little action since Rozzi’s election.

Rozzi has reportedly not changed his registration and vowed not to consider any legislation until the House agrees to pass legislation allowing sexual abuse victims a two-year window to sue over abuse cases.

Rozzi, himself a victim of sexual abuse, canceled regular sessions after a GOP-backed move to package his proposed amendment with legislation to expand voter ID requirements.

Special elections for the three vacant House seats were held in the interim. On Feb. 7, Democratic representatives gained a majority of 102 members to 101 Republican members.

The House returned to session Tuesday, Feb. 21, where the new Democratic majority shut down Republican efforts to amend Rozzi’s legislation. At a separate session Friday, Feb. 24, it passed as both a regular bill and again as an amendment to the state constitution.

If the bill is passed by the Senate, it will become law as soon as the governor signs it. The constitutional change, if it passes, will need to be approved by voters in November at the earliest.

Scialabba voted in favor of the constitutional amendment but against the lawsuit window as a bill.

In a letter dated Jan. 13, Scialabba admonished Rozzi for his inaction and his unfulfilled obligations to the Republican representatives that helped elect him.

“You are very clearly unwilling to partake in a government by the people,” the letter read, “and for that I am calling for your immediate resignation as speaker from the House.”

Halle said Rozzi’s apparent betrayal should not have come as a surprise and that the state GOP’s action against the representatives who elected Rozzi was part of the reason for the censure.

“There’s not one peep from the leadership of the state Republican Party,” Halle said.

Halle said other county committees have been working on censures of their own against the Republicans who voted for Rozzi. Berks County’s Republican committee issued its own censure against them on Jan. 14.

Both Halle’s incorporated committee and Vanasdale’s committee have laid claim to the “real” Butler County Republican Committee since their division in the fall of last year.

Jade Bowers, assistant director for the Butler County Bureau of Elections, said the county will continue to recognize both groups, despite removing them from the county website, until the state GOP steps in.

County solicitor Wil White had previously contacted Tom King, general counsel of the state GOP, for answers. According to Bowers, there has been no update, and the county is still waiting on King to “handle it.”

The state GOP has yet to issue a formal statement recognizing either group. They did not return messages seeking comment last week, on either committee’s legitimacy nor Halle’s censure of Scialabba.