CHESTER — OK, now it’s official.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer joined the race for Pennsylvania attorney general on Tuesday — one day after his intentions to do so were widely reported by news outlets, including the Daily Times — with a snappy new signature tag line for his campaign.
“I will make sure that our communities are safer, that our criminal justice system is fair, that I wake up every single day to fight for environmental and economic justice for all of our citizens, and I will always protect a woman’s right to choose,” he said at the Laborer’s Local 413 Union Hall on Penn Street. “And if you don’t think I can do all that, you don’t know Jack.”
Stollsteimer, who won reelection earlier this month to his current post, becomes the fifth Democrat to enter the race behind state Rep. Jared Solomon of Philadelphia, former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn, and Keir Bradford-Grey, the former head of Philadelphia’s and Montgomery County’s public defense lawyers.
But Stollsteimer said he has an edge against the other hopefuls.
“Under Pennsylvania law, the attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer for our commonwealth, responsible for the investigation and prosecution of thousands of criminal cases every year. It’s a serious responsibility,” he said. “I am, I believe — of the Democratic candidates running — uniquely qualified, because I do that work every single day here in the fifth largest county in Pennsylvania.”
Stollsteimer, 60, of Haverford, is a graduate of Temple University’s Beasley Law School and first joined the county DA’s office in 2000. He was recruited to join the U.S. Department of Justice as a policy analyst and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Project Safe Neighborhoods gun violence initiative just a year later.
In 2004, Stollsteimer was appointed assistant U.S. attorney and assigned to lead a gun violence task force. In 2006, he was tapped to be a Safe Schools Advocate for the Philadelphia School District, where he exposed a systemic failure to properly report violent crimes.
Stollsteimer made history in 2019 when he unseated incumbent Republican Katayoun “Kat” Copeland to become the county’s first Democratic district attorney.
Copeland last week became the second Republican to announce her candidacy for attorney general, possibly setting up a rematch in 2024. York County District Attorney Dave Sunday is the only other Republican to have announced.
Stollsteimer wasted no time Tuesday touting his accomplishments over the last four years, though he noted he always had help from other competent law enforcement members, community leaders and government players in pursuing those goals.
Points to accomplishments
Stollsteimer was the first DA in the state to establish an environmental crimes unit, for instance, and led the effort to decriminalize personal marijuana use while suing large pharmaceutical companies to recoup millions of dollars for the county to use in fighting opioid addiction.
His office reformed the county’s narcotics task force, which has gotten more than $20 million worth of fentanyl off the streets, while supporting criminal justice reforms including deprivatizing the county jail and reducing the number of inmates there through diversionary programs.
Stollsteimer also publicly joined in opposing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, taking the position that he would never prosecute a woman in Delaware County for seeking an abortion, a position that he said he would take with him to the state level.
Stollsteimer could not leave out what he believes is the crowning achievement of his first term, of course: The Chester Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods, which has resulted in a drastic reduction in gun violence in the city, with gun homicides down 68%, and 65% fewer shootings since 2020.
Stollsteimer noted Tuesday that the location of his official announcement was the same room where he and Gov. Josh Shapiro — then the attorney general — met with local union leaders in crafting a plan to go after contractors breaking labor laws, a plan he later put into action, and where Stollsteimer first broached the Chester Partnership with community leaders.
The resulting partnerships from both of those efforts were evident Tuesday, with local union officials, law enforcement brass and activists crowding the stage around Stollsteimer during his announcement.
Stollsteimer said he would expand and build on those same types of partnerships if elected attorney general.
“We have figured it out here in Delaware County over the last few years,” he said. “We need to make government work for people again, and I think we can do it. I know we can do it on the law enforcement side, and that’s why I’m running for attorney general.”
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