Democratic AG primary candidates tout experience
They agreed on legalizing weed, banning TikTok
The five Democratic pri-mary candidates for Penn-sylvania attorney generaladdressed gun violence,opioids, legalizing mari-juana and TikTok duringan hourlong debate Tues-day night.Hosted by Dennis Owensof abc27 in the station’sHarrisburg studio, the de-bate was more a polite ques-tion-and-answer session asthe candidates did not di-rectly engage one another.The primary election isApril 23.Former state representa-tive and former auditorgeneral EugeneDePasquale of AlleghenyCounty came out defendinghis political pursuits,which included a failed bidagainst Republican U.S.Rep. Scott Perry in 2020, bysaying he has won twostatewide races, one withformer President DonaldTrump on the ballot.“Why was I able to win?Because people know myrecord of fighting for Penn-sylvania,” Mr. DePasqualesaid.Mr. DePasquale fre-quently referenced his timeas auditor general, men-tioning his investigationsof the child abuse hotline,untested rape kits and thestate’s oversight of shaledrilling.Delaware County Dis-trict Attorney Jack Stoll-steimer also touted hisrecord that includes reduc-ing the county jail popula-tion by 40% by not incar-cerating “low-level offend-ers,” reducing gun-relatedhomicides and decriminal-izing possession of mari-juana for personal use. “Whatwe’ve donein Dela-wareCounty isbalancecriminaljustice re-form withpublicsafety,” Mr. Stollsteimersaid.Keir Bradford-Grey,the former chief publicdefender in Philadelphia,is trying to become thefirst public defender andBlack woman to serve asPennsylvania attorneygeneral.Ms. Bradford-Grey saidshe’s running “to be thepeople’s lawyer,” andwants to target crime“where it needs to be,” pro-tect women’s reproductiverights and hold gun retail-ers and suppliers account-able.In fact, every Democraticcandidate expressed strongsupport for abortion rightsand vowed to fight any ef-fort to curtail them in Penn-sylvania.State Rep. Jared Solo-mon, a Philadelphia Dem-ocrat, said he has workedto improve his commu-nity and wants to take thatfight to the bigger stage ofthe attorney general’s of-fice.
“I want to protect our fundamental rights,” said Mr. Solomon, who repeatedly warned about Trumpinfluenced politicians and policies geared to erode freedoms.
Former Bucks County solicitor Joe Khan said Democratic attorney general candidates have historically been painted as “soft on crime,” but he spent 10 years as a federal prosecutor and six years as an assistant district attorney.
All the candidates expressed frustration and anger at pharmaceutical corporations for their role in the opioid crisis that continues to ravage families across Pennsylvania.
While her opponents shared their stories of already taking on the opioid industry in some manner, Ms. Bradford-Grey said the industry is accountable but she is concerned about how fairly the money from the state’s $1 billion opioid settlement is being distributed.
“It’s not getting to every community,” she said. “We need to make sure that people who are more desperate are getting the resources they need.”
There was unanimous support for legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, and Mr. DePasquale noted that he called for legalization in 2017. Mr. Stollsteimer said there should be “guardrails” in any such legislation.
“We need to be sure that we do it smartly and not just to make money for the commonwealth,” Mr. Stollsteimer said.