Forty-three minutes. That’s how long it took for Republican Attorney General Candidate Dave Sunday in last week’s debate to acknowledge that the office he is seeking is responsible for more than just criminal prosecutions. Eugene DePasquale got there in two minutes and 13 seconds.
I can understand why Sunday, the York County District Attorney, would want to lean into his experience as a prosecutor. It fits the “Tough on Crime” stance he has taken with his campaign. It’s so important to Sunday that you know he’s tough on crime that it’s essentially the only thing on the home page of his campaign website.
But being Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is not just being tough on crime. In fact, the Criminal Law Division is just one of the four major offices under the Attorney General. Each of these Divisions leads investigations, handles extensive caseloads, and serves the Commonwealth. The Civil Division, for example, has an active load of 7,000 cases and broad responsibilities ranging from defending the Commonwealth and the Constitutionality of its laws to Financial Enforcement, and the review of laws, agency regulations, and local ordinances.
This is the Division of the AG’s office that will defend the constitutional right for a woman to have access to reproductive healthcare. We in the Commonwealth may take this right for granted and some who watched Sunday’s debate performance may be comforted by the fact that he said he would “never prosecute a woman for getting an abortion”, but again, prosecution of the mother is just one aspect of this complicated issue.
Many other Republican Attorneys General are shutting down abortions in their states by threatening to prosecute the doctors who perform them, the friends and family who transport these vulnerable women to their medical appointments, or individuals who help pay for their medical care.
Will Dave Sunday oppose record requests from Texas’ extremist Republican AG, Ken Paxton, when his office requests the travel and medical records of every Texan woman of reproductive age who visited our Commonwealth? Will he aid Texan citizens, empowered by a new wave of bounty hunter laws, who will use Texas’ proposed “abortion trafficking ordinances” that allow them to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion when a Texan woman seeks emergency medical care in a Pennsylvania hospital?
His performance in last week’s debate says that he would not stand up for the rights of those women.
Governor Shapiro has stated that the state will not defend the Constitutionality of a current law that says the state’s Medicaid program cannot pay for abortions. Eugene DePasquale agrees, saying that the state should not have two different standards of medical care – one for people who can afford private health insurance and those who rely on public assistance.
Sunday hid behind statute and said that the law requires him to defend the constitutionality of this provision. He would protect a law that says if you can afford private healthcare and have an ectopic pregnancy, your doctor can save your life. But if you can’t afford private healthcare, the state will force you to wait until your life is in danger from sepsis before your doctor is allowed to provide emergency medical care.
This isn’t just unconstitutional on its face, it’s inhumane. And Pennsylvanians deserve an AG who will champion their healthcare.
The other area where Sunday was dead wrong in his debate performance last week was when he dismissed the importance of the work of the non-criminal aspects of the AG’s office, “when someone dies, you can’t fix that … but on the civil side of it, when things go awry, a lot of that can be repaired.”
Whether it’s naivete or political pandering to a tough-on-crime narrative, this is a highly irresponsible remark. The Attorney General’s Office under Josh Shapiro negotiated and secured a $2.2 billion settlement from the companies who flooded our Commonwealth with opioids and devastated our communities. Combatting opioid addiction by going after the companies that profit from it is going after the source of the disease, rather than the symptoms. You can’t arrest your way out of an addiction crisis, Sunday.
The Public Protection Division protects and enforces the Civil Rights of Pennsylvanians. And if you don’t think violating civil rights can lead to irreparable harm, I have questions about how you’ve conducted your investigations in York County. They are responsible for Consumer Protection Issues, keeping our seniors safe from scammers, and investigating those who prey on them. All across the Commonwealth, our seniors are under attack by people using AI and other technology to prey on them. They pretend to be from government agencies and demand money to close out tax liens. Or they clone the voices of loved ones and pretend to need urgent wire transfers.
READ: Eugene DePasquale for PA Attorney General | Philadelphia Inquirer Endorsement
Day in and day out, our seniors are under assault. And the AG’s office needs an AG who is experienced in complex investigations to go after the technology companies that enable the attackers, the telephone companies that carry their calls, the banks that facilitate the transactions, and care homes that fall short of their responsibilities to protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians.
Eugene DePasquale has that experience. As Auditor General, he oversaw a budget thirty-five times larger than that of Sunday in York County. He has led financial investigations, uncovered 58,000 unanswered calls to the state’s child abuse hotline, recovered hidden dollars for Pennsylvania taxpayers, and led skilled career professionals at the top of their game. Just as he will lead the skilled career professionals, the Executive Deputy Attorney Generals who have been on the front lines for the people of our Commonwealth for decades.
Sunday, in his laser focus on Criminal Prosecutions, is telling us that he is only interested in 25 percent of the Attorney General’s job. Eugene DePasquale is ready for 100 percent of it.
