Marsh Secures GOP Control of Two State House Committees

The swearing-in of a new Republican lawmaker gives the GOP a decided majority in two committees in the state house.

Committee appointments had been almost evenly split among the two parties.

Pat Marsh won a seat long held by Democrats in a special election earlier this month.

Marsh, who owns a trucking company, will sit on the house committees for transportation and commerce. The appointment by House Speaker Kent Williams gives Republicans solid control of those two bodies, where before Williams held the deciding vote.

Williams says the partisan shakeup really doesn’t change much.

“We didn’t have any gridlock last year when they were even. You know, when you get conservatives working together, and as you know we have several conservative Democrats that voted on a lot of our conservative issues, and I expect that to continue.”

Williams preserved his deciding vote on the house health committee by appointing a Democrat, keeping that body evenly split.