Political drama was expected in Harrisburg today as state House members cast votes for the top leadership post. If, as expected, Demo-cratic Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone of Reading votes for Republican John Perzel to serve as House speaker, a historic oddity will find a Republican in the top legislative job despite Democrats having a one-person House majority.

Most Democrats have been seething since Caltagirone, a self-described loyal Democrat for 30 years, announced he would support Perzel, in return for Perzel's promise to back reforms to make the operation of the House more transparent and accountable to voters. State Democratic Chairman T.J. Rooney has labeled Caltagirone's plan "reprehensible...selfish...a slap in the face to his constituents."

Too bad that Rooney and other political insiders didn't feel the same way about the 2 a.m. vote on July 7, 2005, for massive pay raises for state lawmakers and others. That vote, which was preceded by no public discussion and no open debate, was seen by most Pennsylvanians as "reprehensible...selfish...a slap in the face."

Caltagirone, who sees a greater chance of passing good-government reforms with Perzel than Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese, is being labeled a traitor by fellow Democrats.

In exchange for his support, Caltagirone claims that Perzel has agreed to divide committee chairmanships equally between the two parties and prevent late-night legislative sessions by adjourning the House by 10 p.m.

Many more reforms are needed, but these first steps would move the House in the right direction.

But apparently even these modest reforms were not something DeWeese was prepared to support. Strict adherence to party-line positions is clearly important to DeWeese, who stripped a handful of Democrats of their committee posts in retaliation for their not supporting the pay-raise vote.

The outcome of today's scheduled House leadership election could well take another unexpected twist by the time the final votes are counted. It is possible that Democrats could convince a few Republicans to switch their votes in exchange for key committee posts or money for their districts.

Neither Democratic nor Repub- lican leadership in Harrisburg can be viewed as pro-reform. Entrenched leaders from both parties were equal co-conspirators in the pay-raise fiasco of 2005. And these same leaders saw nothing wrong with using falsified expense reports, known in Harrisburg as unvouchered expenses, to grab the pay-raise money before the start of the next legislative session, as the state constitution mandates.

Support for reform and improved transparency and accountability does not come naturally to any of the recent members of leadership in Harrisburg. But apparently the prospect of retaining the speaker's job is enough to get Perzel to back some modest reforms. According to Caltagirone, Perzel has "pledged... to conduct the affairs of the House in an open, inclusive and fair manner."

If true, that certainly would be a welcome change. Voters can only wait and watch.

So as 2007 moves forward, Harrisburg continues to provide political intrigue — and entertainment. Caltagirone's apparently courageous action does demonstrate, however, that reform-minded lawmakers do have leverage to push for changes in the way the General Assembly does business.

How that leverage is applied and what impact it ultimately has should become apparent in the early days and weeks of the new year.

Partisan Democrats might call Caltagirone a traitor, but his actions will be seen as just the opposite if he can jump-start the reform movement in Harrisburg.