Mark Rozzi
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| 142nd Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives | |
| In office January 3, 2023 (2023-01-03) – February 28, 2023 (2023-02-28) | |
| Preceded by | Bryan Cutler |
| Succeeded by | Joanna McClinton |
| Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 126th district | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Dante Santoni |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1971-04-30) April 30, 1971 (age 53) Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Other political affiliations | Independent Democrat (2023)[a] |
| Spouse | Jacklyn Rusnock (divorced)[1] |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | Kutztown University (BA) |
| Website | Campaign website |
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Mark Lucio Rozzi[2] (born April 30, 1971) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 142nd Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from January to February 2023. He currently serves as representative for the 126th district.[3]
Rozzi was born on April 30, 1971, in Reading, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Muhlenberg High School in 1989 and earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Kutztown University.[2] Rozzi operated his family’s window and door installation business before selling it in 2018. Rozzi is divorced and has one daughter.[4][5]
Rozzi was first elected to represent the 126th district in the Pennsylvania House of Representativesin2012. He was subsequently elected to five more terms.[2]
On October 21, 2023, Rozzi announced that he would not seek re-election to his state house seat, opting instead to run for Pennsylvania Auditor General.[6] He later dropped out of the race in January 2024, citing mental health issues stemming from sexual abuse as a child.[1]
Rozzi was sexually abused and raped by a priest in the Roman Catholic Church as a child. Making it easier for victims to bring charges and file lawsuits against the accused has been one of his political objectives,[7] as well as the reason why he ran for state representative.[8] Following a grand jury report detailing of cover-up of church sex abuse, Rozzi led an effort to give relief to survivors via new legislation. In 2019, Governor Tom Wolf signed into a law package of legislation that removed temporal constraints on filing charges against perpetrators of sexual abuse. Amidst the package of reforms was an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution which would retroactively repeal the statue of limitations on sexual abuse. The amendment had to be approved by two successive legislative sessions before being put forward in a referendum.[9] However, a 2021 clerical error by Wolf's administration caused the final passage of the amendment to be pushed back even further.[10]
On January 3, 2023, Rozzi, a Democrat, was elected as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, following speculation and disputes over which party controlled the legislature; in the 2022 election, Democrats won a majority of seats, but three vacancies technically gave Republican a 101-99 majority. Rozzi was nominated by Republican Representative Jim Gregory as a compromise candidate, earning bipartisan support. Following his election, Rozzi said he would govern as an independent and not caucus with either party. However, according to private conversations with fellow Democrats, Rozzi would not change his party registration.[11][12][13] His private comments saying he would remain in the Democratic Party caused controversy with the Republicans who voted him for speaker, including Gregory, who said Rozzi should resign. According to Gregory and others, Rozzi repeatedly told them he would leave the Democratic Party and officially register as an independent should he be elected speaker.[14][15]
As Speaker, Rozzi said his first priority would be to finally pass the amendment to Pennsylvania's constitution to allow victims of sexual abuse a two year gap in the statute of limitations for them to sue their abusers. Governor Wolf called a special session of the legislature so such the amendment could be passed the required second time. However, Republicans in the State Senate combined the amendment on sexual abuse survivors with two others to require voter ID and regulatory reform.[14][16][17] Rozzi opposed the addition of the two other amendments and pushed for legislation making the sex abuse survivors amendment separate from the other two.[18] He was successful on February 24, with an amendment solely concerning victim relief passing 161-40. However, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman declined to bring the singular amendment to a vote.[19]
On February 28, Rozzi resigned as Speaker of the House and returned to the Democratic Caucus.[20]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 2,820 | 58.82 | |
| Democratic | Frank B. Denbowski | 1,592 | 33.21 | |
| Democratic | John A. Delcollo | 381 | 7.95 | |
| Write-in | 1 | 0.02 | ||
| Total votes | 4,794 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 16,811 | 70.21 | |
| Republican | James R. Billman | 7,119 | 29.73 | |
| Write-in | 13 | 0.05 | ||
| Total votes | 23,943 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 10,687 | 99.46 | |
| Write-in | 58 | 0.54 | ||
| Total votes | 10,745 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 20,479 | 99.79 | |
| Write-in | 43 | 0.21 | ||
| Total votes | 20,522 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 15,291 | 99.6 | |
| Write-in | 62 | 0.4 | ||
| Total votes | 15,353 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 18,508 | 67.30 | |
| Republican | James D. Oswald | 8,961 | 32.59 | |
| Write-in | 30 | 0.11 | ||
| Total votes | 27,499 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mark Rozzi | 11,613 | 63.98 | |
| Republican | James Daniel Oswald | 6,539 | 36.02 | |
| Total votes | 18,152 | 100.00 | ||
| Pennsylvania House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 126th district 2013–present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 2023 |
Succeeded by |
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