AG candidate emphasizes his record as a prosecutor in his speech to the press club in Harrisburg on Sunday

Based on Dave Sunday’s speech to the Pennsylvania Press Club on Monday, the attorney general’s race has in many ways come down to the civil versus criminal side of the legal profession.

On Sunday, the Republican nominee to become the state’s top law enforcement officer spoke at Monday’s luncheon in Harrisburg, with just a week to go before voters weigh in on the battle between him and the Democrat. Eugene DePasquale.

As he has previously emphasized, on Sunday he highlighted his extensive resume as a prosecutor and as a law enforcement reformer treats addiction and mental healthportraying himself as one of the most qualified men in the state to take on drug traffickers and gang members.

“If something happens and someone dies, you can’t fix it,” Sunday said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about this.”

“I’m participating because I feel like this is a public safety mission,” Sunday continued. “I’m not competing for another title, I’m competing to do this work. “I am the chief prosecutor of a district running to become the state’s top prosecutor.”

As he said during his speech to the press club, Sunday joined the Navy as a young man and later worked his way through college and law school, eventually joining the York County District Attorney’s Office and working his way up through the organization as a criminal prosecutor. He was chosen to lead the office in 2017 and, by his own count, has handled more than 20 first-degree murder jury trials.

DePasquale, on the other hand, is a former state representative and two-term auditor general in Pennsylvania who is known for leading investigations into environmental enforcement, rape kit backlogs, embezzlement financing and a long list of other cases that speak more toward civil lawsuits .

“We’re just different people, it’s like a story about two lawyers. You have one that came through a courthouse to get here, and you have one that came through Harrisburg,” Sunday said.

While he acknowledged that there are “very complex civil cases, actions that take place in the AG’s office that are important,” Sunday reiterated that he believes the office should be led by a prosecutor in the courtroom.

“When I talk about the fact that if our community isn’t safe, nothing else matters, it’s through that lens,” Sunday said of his frontline experience with the opioid epidemic. “I think we’re at a point where we need a prosecutor to do that work.”

Sunday spent a lot of time during his speech discussing his philosophy on dealing with drug-related crime and the opioid addiction crisis, saying that “not only have we put pressure on drug traffickers, but we have done everything we can to get people into treatment to get.”

York Counties overdose death rate was declining even as it continued to grow elsewhere, Sunday said, something he attributed in part to initiatives such as having addiction treatment centers and mentoring mental health workers in police departments to get a “warm handoff” into treatment .

His office also worked closely on second-chance programs to help people leaving prison find work, reducing recidivism and relapse, Sunday said. Asked about race relations, he also highlighted a joint program with Black ministers that formed in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

The city of York The number of firearms crimes decreased last year due to what Sunday described as a combination of both tough enforcement and social intervention initiatives, and “those are incredibly powerful numbers,” he said.

Complicating this record is the national political landscape. Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, he said on Sunday that he is doing everything he can to run his own race.

“The top of the ticket certainly affects that because it sets the tone for voters across the state, but what I’ve done is I’ve campaigned out there,” Sunday said. “We run our own race, that’s what it comes down to. I campaign on the issues that are important to me.”

But there are two areas in particular where it will be difficult on Sunday to avoid the minefield laid by his own party’s presidential candidate, Donald Trump – abortion and elections – which he was questioned about at Monday’s event.

Asked specifically on Sunday whether he would uphold a law banning abortion in Pennsylvania, something that has been legally possible since Trump’s appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court overturned precedents on abortion rights.

“There are no circumstances in which I could ever prosecute a woman for having an abortion,” Sunday said, without outlining how he would approach the inevitable civil lawsuits that accompany any attempt to stop abortion procedures.

“I don’t see any world where the will of the people of Pennsylvania would ever do that,” Sunday said of an abortion ban. “Bringing out mortgages is something that I think is counterproductive.”

Trump similarly said during last month’s debate that he would not sign a national abortion ban, but also repeatedly declined to say whether he would actually veto such a measure if conservatives in Congress were to pass one.

Also asked Sunday if he would have done anything differently in 2020 when then-Attorney General and current Governor Josh Shapiro defended Pennsylvania elections against dozens of lawsuits caused by the Trump campaign – many of which are based on false claims that resulted in disciplinary action against the former president’s lawyers.

Sunday responded by focusing on efforts to prevent disruptions at polling places, saying that “regardless of who wins or loses, the other side must accept it and move on.”

When asked after the event whether he had paid any attention to the constitutional issues Shapiro raised in the wake of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, he did not elaborate, saying only that he would follow the law.

“Just as I would any other law, we will defend the laws of the Commonwealth regardless of the outcome of the election,” Sunday said. “These are actually so nuanced circumstances that I would wait” to speculate on the legal strategy, he continued, but “what I can say is that I will defend the laws of Pennsylvania.”

The Pasquale campaign has used such responses to try to portray Sunday as unwilling or unable to delve into the complex civil rights issues that would surround future abortion changes or election challenges, issues that are key drivers for Democratic-leaning voters.

Tomorrow – October 29 – is the last day in Pennsylvania to request a mail-in ballot for the November 5 elections.