Monday, January 15, 2007

Mark McNaughton, a Republican who left the House after 10 years representing
part of Dauphin County, was named by since-ousted House Speaker John Perzel
on the last day of the 2005-06 legislative session. On Thursday, House
Republican leader Sam Smith of Jefferson County told McNaughton he will not
choose him, Smith's spokesman said. While Smith has not decided whom to
appoint, he is looking to find someone from outside "the political box,"
spokesman Steve Miskin said. The new House speaker, Rep. Dennis O'Brien,
R-Philadelphia, has not said whether he will choose McNaughton. However,
House Democrats, who hold a slim majority, say they expect O'Brien will
acknowledge the chamber's unusual power structure by reappointing their
selection for the board, former Democratic Rep. Jeffrey Coy of Franklin
County. The emergence of a Democratic majority in the House with a speaker
from the Republican minority has created a situation unprecedented for at
least a century and one that was not envisioned by the 2004 bill that
legalized slot-machine gambling. The law divided responsibility for
appointing the gambling regulators among the governor and selected leaders
of the Legislature. In the House, those are the House speaker and the House
minority leader. McNaughton did not immediately return a telephone message
left by The Associated Press on Friday, but he told WHTM-TV in Harrisburg
that he was disappointed. "I think I would've done a good job on the board,"
he told the station. By law, the terms of all four legislative appointees on
the board expire next week. Without a full complement of legislative
appointees, the seven-member gaming board cannot take any votes.

McNaughton's selection had been rocky.

In December, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that McNaughton, who opposed
the slots law, won more than $15,000 at casinos in recent years, but had not
reported the winnings on his state ethics forms.

Last week, Perzel, R-Philadelphia, was ousted from the speakership, throwing
McNaughton's candidacy into doubt. On Monday, the top attorney for the
Pennsylvania State Department questioned the constitutionality of
McNaughton's appointment, and recommended that he not be sworn in.

The lawyer, Albert H. Masland, sent a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell and
legislative leaders saying McNaughton's appointment violates a
constitutional prohibition against legislators being appointed to any
salaried civil office in Pennsylvania during their terms in office.

McNaughton was named by Perzel on Nov. 30, also McNaughton's final day in
office.

Masland also questioned whether the 2004 slots law allowed Perzel to fill a
board position that had not yet been vacated.

Perzel had tapped McNaughton to replace his first appointee, Joseph W.
"Chip" Marshall III, the chief executive of the Temple University Health
System, who resigned from the gaming board Dec. 27.