HARRISBURG (AP) — One job up for grabs before voters across Pennsylvania this fall is monitoring government agencies. The second handles state funds. The third supervises hundreds of public prosecutors.
The two Republican candidates, Treasurer Stacey Garrity and Auditor General Tim DeFore, are vying to retain their seats, while the race for the state’s top prosecutor is open. Statewide offices pay about $198,000 annually.
The race for district attorney pits Republican York County Prosecutor Dave Sunday against former Auditor General and state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, the Democratic Party’s nominee. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, is taking on DeForor while Democrat Erin McClelland hopes to unseat Garrity.
A look at Pennsylvania’s major party candidates for Attorney General, Auditor General and Treasurer:
Attorney General
Sunday, a Navy veteran, emphasized his 15 years as a prosecutor in York County, a heavily Republican district of about 460,000 south of Harrisburg, near Maryland.
DePasquale is an attorney, former York City economic development director and three-term state representative. As auditor general, he called attention to a large backlog of untested rape kits, unanswered calls to the Pennsylvania Childline child abuse hotline, and nursing home conditions.
DePasquale’s time running the auditor general’s office “has nothing to do with criminal law,” he said Sunday during a discussion earlier this month.
DiPasquale, who lives in Pittsburgh, said he would prioritize voting protections and stressed his support for abortion rights.
He said Sunday that he “will enforce and defend Pennsylvania’s abortion laws,” arguing that “there is no scenario where I would ever sue a woman for having an abortion.” Many Republican supporters on Sunday support abortion bans, and state GOP lawmakers tried to push a constitutional amendment that he says does not guarantee any abortion rights or public funding for abortions, DiPasquale said.
DePasquale said he had “serious concerns” about the death penalty, while saying Sunday he supports the death penalty in “the saddest, most tragic and most horrific cases.”
Kathleen Kane became the first woman and first Democrat elected to the position of Attorney General in 2012. Pennsylvania’s prosecutors have all been Republicans since the position became an elected position in 1980. Kane’s term ended with her resignation after she was charged with perjury and other crimes in 2012. 2016.
She was succeeded by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who won re-election in 2020, having relinquished the position after being elected governor nearly two years earlier. Shapiro chose his first deputy in the Attorney General’s Office, Michelle Henry, as his successor, but she said when it was confirmed that she would not run for re-election.
General Auditor
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DeForor, a former Dauphin County comptroller who won by about 3 percentage points in 2020, has focused on increasing financial literacy and plans to create a forensic audit unit to respond to signs of criminality.
His recent decision to review the state’s drive-thru voter registration system has drawn opposition from Shapiro and Kenyatta’s transportation minister, who said his opponent’s move would provide “cover for dangerous conspiracies and election denial.”
Kenyatta became the first openly gay person of color to serve in the House of Representatives. He finished third in the 2022 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate won by John Fetterman. At the same time, he is seeking another term as a representative of the state.
“I’ve been doing this type of work for over 30 years,” DeVore said. “I’ve spent my entire career studying how taxpayer money is used, whether it’s being used properly, whether the programs that the government has are effective?”
Kenyatta criticized DeForor’s decision to halt school audits that DeForor said were of little value to districts.
Kenyatta said the auditor general could have changed the scope of school audits instead of stopping them.
DeForor oversaw audits of balances kept on school district books and state fees paid to pharmacy benefit managers under Medicaid, but Kenyatta said they were poorly implemented and politically motivated. Kenyatta said his priorities include reviewing school facilities and looking at how labor laws are enforced.
cashier
Garrity, a retired Army Reserve colonel who served three tours in Iraq, was vice president of a tungsten smelting plant when she beat incumbent Democratic Treasurer Joe Torsella by less than one percentage point four years ago. Garrity, a resident of Athens in Bradford County, has aggressively promoted her office’s efforts to return unclaimed property to its rightful owners.
She also took credit for tackling state savings programs for people with disabilities and students and pushing the governor and Legislature to increase savings in the state’s rainy day fund.
McClelland, a former congressional candidate with a background in mental health and substance abuse counseling who lives near Pittsburgh, says Garrity tended to use her position to engage on issues related to the national political debate.
“I want all politicians out of office,” McClelland said. “I believe this job is an honest broker who protects taxpayers, not a lap dog for one party or another.”
The Garrity campaign portrayed McClelland as lacking in gravitas. Garrity’s better-funded campaign received an indirect boost earlier this month when Shapiro announced the endorsements of several fellow Democrats but did not endorse anyone in the treasurer’s race.
A spokesman for Shapiro said Shapiro’s endorsement was reserved for candidates who requested his support and where he believed he could “make the biggest difference.”
