Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mark Rozzi is photographed at the speaker's podium, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Smith)

While the U.S. House of Representatives continues to work to put its house in order, the Pennsylvania House is ready to get down to business.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been surprises along the way, nor that all preliminary steps were complete as of Friday.

On Tuesday, Rep. Kathy Rapp (R-65) walked into the House chamber expecting the members of her party to vote for Rep. Carl Metzgar (R-69) for Speaker of the House.

During the November elections, Democrats flipped the House, winning 12 seats to take a razor-thin 102-101 majority.

Since then, one of the elected Democrats died and two others were elected to other offices and left their seats in the House.

Until special elections can be held – they are scheduled for February – Republicans hold a numerical advantage of 101 to 99.

“We had a caucus meeting” before the vote, Rapp said. The caucus decided to vote for Metzgar.

But, when the nominations began, that changed.

Jim Gregory, a Republican from Blair County and a member of the Republican Caucus, nominated Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-126).

Rozzi went on to defeat Metzgar, the only other nominee, with every Democrat and 16 Republicans voting for Rozzi.

Rapp was not one of the Republicans who cast their lots for Rozzi.

“He had 16 Republicans… including our leadership,” Rapp said. “There was some disappointment from many of the members with our leadership. It’s done now.”

Those Republicans were seemingly acting on assurances from Rozzi.

“We were told that Rep. Rozzi was going to be an independent,” Rapp said.

There was speculation that Rozzi would change his party affiliation, but Rapp is not confident in that.

“The more I read the remarks… he says he’s going to be an independent Speaker,” she said. “Which is two different things.”

Rozzi is now Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He is still a registered Democrat and has the support of the Democratic “majority.”

Rapp, who has been the chair of the House health committee, is taking a wait-and-see approach.

“I really don’t know what to expect,” she said. “At this point in time, we’re still waiting to see how it unfolds with the Speaker.”

“We’re not there and no one knows exactly how it’s going to shake out,” Rapp said. “We’ll see. Nobody knows for sure.”