What does an attorney general do and who’s running for the office in Pennsylvania?

Democrat Eugene DePasquale and Republican Dave Sunday are running for the office that has a hand in everything from going after companies that don’t pay their employees to enforcing environmental laws.

Among the most important races at the state level in November is the race for Pennsylvania attorney general between Democratic candidate Eugene DePasquale and Republican Dave Sunday.

Current Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was elected to the post in 2016 and served until winning the race for governor in 2022. 

Michelle Henry was approved in March to fill the last two years of Gov. Shapiro’s second elected four-year term, after Shapiro nominated her to succeed him. 

Upon being nominated, Henry, a Republican, said she wouldn’t run for the office when the term is up for election in November.

What does the state attorney general do?

The attorney general is Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement officer and leads a staff of several hundred prosecutors, attorneys, investigators, agents, and support staff in offices across the state.

The attorney general serves as counselor to state government agencies and legislatures, and as a representative of the public interest.  Responsibilities include:

• Issuing formal opinions to state agencies 
• Acting on behalf of residents in areas such as consumer protections, antitrust and utility regulation 
• Proposing state laws 
• Enforcing federal and state environmental laws 
• Representing the state and state agencies before the state and federal courts 
• Handling criminal appeals and serious statewide criminal prosecutions 
• Instituting civil suits on behalf of the state 
• Operating victim compensation programs 

One of Gov. Shapiro’s most notable achievements as attorney general was a statewide grand jury report that revealed the abuse of Pennsylvania children by priests and coverup by Catholic Church leaders. The investigation showed that 301 priests were accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children in the six dioceses and were routinely shuffled from parish to parish in order to avoid scrutiny. As a result of the investigation, former Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law legislation that overhauled the state’s child sex abuse statute.

Shapiro also helped negotiate $1 billion for Pennsylvania as part of a national opioid settlement, and settled the largest prevailing wage theft criminal case in U.S. history against a State College-based contractor who stole over $20 million in wages from employees.

Who is the Democratic candidate for attorney general in Pennsylvania?

Former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is running for Pennsylvania Attorney General as a Democrat. He plans to focus on combating gun violence, seeking new approaches to non-violent drug offenses, and protecting reproductive freedoms, both for residents and those traveling here from states with restrictive laws regarding abortion care.

“One thing I’ve made it clear is that not only will I protect abortion rights for anyone in Pennsylvania, but for anyone leaving one of these right-wing authoritarian states that are passing these overly restrictive laws that need to come here to make sure that their reproductive rights are maintained,” DePasquale told The Keystone in May.

DePasquale served as Auditor General from 2012 to 2020, and fell short in his most recent campaign against Congressman Scott Perry (R-Dauphin) in 2020.  

One of DePasquale’s most notable accomplishments as Auditor General was reducing the state’s backlogged rape kits by almost 90%. The Auditor General’s office defined a backlogged kit as one awaiting testing for 12 months or longer, and they were able to reduce the amount of backlogged kits from 3,217 to 339 in three years.  

Who is the Republican candidate for attorney general in Pennsylvania?

DePasquale is opposed by Dave Sunday, the York County District Attorney, who was elected to the post in 2017.

Sunday is a U.S. Navy veteran who said public safety and the opioid epidemic would be his top priorities as attorney general.

As York County D.A., Sunday directed local law enforcement not to issue citations to businesses that violated former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s ongoing business closure order at the outset of the pandemic. He issued a similar mandate not to prosecute citations related to Wolf’s 2021 order requiring masking in schools.

Sunday has largely remained vague on the issue of reproductive rights, saying during a March debate with DePasquale that he does not believe the state constitution guarantees a right to abortion access, arguing that decision belongs to the legislature, but that he would “follow the law, whatever that law is, as determined by the legislature.”

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