An Inside Scoop on the New Year's Eve Phone Call

It has quickly moved into legend, the fateful New Year’s Eve phone call that propelled Dennis O’Brien into the Speaker’s role this past January. It sounded like State Rep Josh Shapiro and State Rep Dennis O’Brien were both sitting around their respective houses on New Year’s when, like Newton and the apple, Shapiro was struck by inspiration, called O’Brien and asked him if he’d like to be speaker. O’Brien said sure. And so it came to pass.

Honestly, I’ve had some trouble with this. For all but one or two of my forty-[mumble] New Year’s Eves I’ve been in my house minding my own business and political insights never came to visit like the ghost of Christmas future and no one called and asked me much of anything.

However, this summer as I was flitting around some townhall meetings I happened to hear Shapiro speak and one of the things he did was tell his version. But before I get to that, let’s see what the press has had to say.

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette of January 3rd, “Dems hold house, but GOP holds gavel – Democrat Deweese engineers a scheme to make a Republican Speaker of the House – but ousts Perzel,” by Tom Barnes. Here are two excepts:

So a few House Democrats, including Mr. DeWeese, Mr. McCall, Mr. Evans and Josh Shapiro of Montgomery, huddled Monday to develop a new strategy.

No other Democrat could round up the required 102 votes, so Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Evans thought of a new direction -- Mr. O'Brien.

Later

Mr. O'Brien said he'd never sought the speakership but got initial feelers from Democrats on New Year's Eve.

A few House Democrats talked to Mr. Rendell by phone Monday night about Mr. O'Brien, and then met with him yesterday morning at the governor's residence here.

No mention of the one heroic call.

Angela Couloumbis, in January 3rd’s Inquirer, “New Year’s Eve call got the ball rolling,” tells a different story:

If Democratic State Rep. Josh Shapiro or Republican Rep. Dennis M. O'Brien had had plans for New Year's Eve, yesterday's historic political maneuver for the speakership might never have happened.

On that night, Shapiro - acting alone - called O'Brien at home with a proposition: How would he feel about becoming speaker of the House? "He reacted favorably and I could tell he was taking the offer seriously," Shapiro, of Montgomery County, said in an interview yesterday. "It's a good thing neither of us had plans that night."

Shapiro's call to O'Brien - triggered by Democratic fears that State Rep. John Perzel (R., Phila.) would be able to hang on to the speakership - set off a fast and furious chain of events that led to O'Brien's ascent to the top House job yesterday.

Later

Shapiro said he next called House Majority Speaker Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) about the possibility of nominating O'Brien. DeWeese was intrigued, he said.

Shapiro also spoke with Gov. Rendell and his staff.

The next day - New Year's Day - Shapiro, State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.) and other top Democratic leaders met with O'Brien at the Marriott hotel in West Conshohocken for three hours.

The January 3rd Morning Call has similar details but with a little less drama, “New state house leader calls reforms – Bucks, Montco lawmakers will lead study panel on issue,” by John L. Micek and Christine Gostomski:

The negotiations for O'Brien's nomination began on New Year's Eve, when Shapiro reached out to him about the possibility of becoming the Democrats' pick for speaker. "I said that he was a good and honorable man committed to reforming the institution," Shapiro said.

New Year's Day, O'Brien met with Shapiro, DeWeese and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, at a hotel in suburban Philadelphia.

Further discussions followed Tuesday, after it became clear O'Brien wasn't willing to change parties. Democrats and Republicans met with Rendell at the governor's mansion at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and followed that session with another at Evans' Capitol offices shortly after 11 a.m.

Later articles have embellished the story a bit.

From the January 15 Intelligencer, “Charting the path of a rising star: with just two years under his belt, Democratic state Rep. Josh Shapiro has a great deal of influence in the party,” by Alison Hawkes:

Shapiro said he "unilaterally" joined the effort to block Perzel, sniffing out O'Brien, a Republican from far Northeast Philadelphia who was friendly to Democrats. Shapiro and O'Brien, whose districts are about 10 miles apart, had worked together on funding for disabled children and had bonded over their own young children. Shapiro has two with his high school sweetheart, Lori. They graduated from Akiba Hebrew Academy in Lower Merion.

He convinced O'Brien to run for speaker, then called DeWeese with the proposal and by swearing-in day was at the governor's mansion finalizing the details. He also helped bring a small group of Republicans on board.

There has been a little dampening of the growing legend as noted in “A new role for two-term Shapiro – after helping persuade O’Brien to run for speaker, he is given new deputy post,” by Tom Barnes in the January 28 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

They'd gotten to know and respect each other during the 2005-06 term, when Mr. O'Brien was House Judiciary Committee chairman. Although several other House Democrats had asked Mr. O'Brien if he'd be willing to run for speaker against Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, it was Mr. Shapiro's call on New Year's Eve that did the trick. Mr. O'Brien said he'd run, shocking many of his colleagues in both parties.

“Josh adopted football coach Vince Lombardi's tactic of hitting the line one more time, and we struck gold,'' said House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese of Waynesburg.

And as in every legend, there is a naysayer:

Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a conservative Republican from Cranberry, is somewhat critical, claiming Mr. Shapiro gets too much credit for Mr. O'Brien's surprise victory over Mr. Perzel.

"That took a lot of players, including [Mr.] Rendell and Mr. DeWeese, plus the six Republicans'' who deserted Mr. Perzel, said Mr. Metcalfe, a Perzel supporter who is still unhappy with the defectors. "Josh seems like a decent young man, well-groomed and well-spoken, but I think he's part of the liberal Democratic, tax-and-spend crowd. He's tied in with Rendell and DeWeese.''

So what did Shapiro say when he told the story?

Like all good husbands and fathers he was going to get take out for his family when he passed a corner where he had campaigned in 2004, his first run at the state house. One day a van with the license plate HR 169 went by and the driver wished the campaign group well. It had been O’Brien, driving his children somewhere in the area. And thus inspiration struck and Shapiro went home and made the call.

Unless one of the two of them writes their memoirs that is probably all we will ever know.