Former two-term Auditor General Eugene DePasquale wants to be Pa.’s next top prosecutor

Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania’s crusading two-time auditor general, will run next year to be the state’s next top prosecutor, he announced Thursday.

DePasquale, 51, is a Democrat and Pittsburgh native who widened the responsibilities of the Auditor General’s Office during his two terms as the state’s top watchdog from 2013 to 2021. He boasts his work investigating the number of untested rape kits and the state’s unresponsive child abuse hotline as two of his biggest successes.

DePasquale most recently unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., York) in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District in 2020. Perry, who was a leader in former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, beat DePasquale in the red district by 6 percentage points, or 26,000 votes.

DePasquale said that he’s ready to be “the people’s lawyer” — and that he’s proven that he can win statewide.

“I know I can win. I’ve done it twice before,” said DePasquale, the first Democratic candidate to announce their candidacy for the 2024 attorney general’s race. “We can’t let some Trump loyalist get ahold of it.”

DePasquale listed abortion access, book bans, climate change, gun violence, and voting rights as “critical fights” that he’s ready to take on, if elected.

Gov. Josh Shapiro earlier this year resigned from his position as attorney general to be sworn in and appointed his deputy, Michelle Henry, as his replacement through next year. Henry does not plan to run in 2024.

Once known for his many news conferences, DePasquale made his announcement Thursday to little fanfare — announcing his candidacy with an emailed release.

DePasquale made himself an unavoidable figure in Harrisburg with public appearances to announce everything from the start of an audit to his office’s finding that 42,000 calls to the state’s child abuse hotline went unanswered.

And if elected, DePasquale said, he wouldn’t need as many news conferences, which became the ire of Republicans who argued he used his office to advance his political career and eventually resulted in a 21%, or $10.2 million, cut to his office’s budget during his second term.

“As auditor general, the power I had was finding stuff, but then using the bully pulpit to try to drive the change,” DePasquale said.

But the attorney general can take legal action beyond the scope of a watchdog, he said.

”Do I also anticipate being a presence across the state? Yes,” he added. “But the tactics would be different because the tools are different.”

Whoever becomes Pennsylvania’s next attorney general will inherit a rocky relationship between the state and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Republicans in the House impeached Krasner last year, and the Senate GOP advanced legislation to circumvent Krasner and give the attorney general oversight of SEPTA police.

Krasner at times had an iffy relationship with fellow Democrat Shapiro when he was attorney general. In 2019, Krasner criticized Shapiro over a bill that would have allowed the Attorney General’s Office to prosecute some cases in the city instead of the District Attorney’s Office. The DA also drew the ire of the Anti-Defamation League and others when he joked that some former city prosecutors who went to the AG’s Office after Krasner was sworn in were “war criminals” who had fled to “Paraguay,” a reference to one of the South American countries where Nazis took refuge after World War II.

And other rumored AG candidates will likely run on the same issue, such as Rep. Craig Williams (R., Delaware) and Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Philadelphia), who were both chosen last year as impeachment managers for Krasner’s impeachment trial in the state Senate. That trial has been postponed indefinitely.

DePasquale said he believes Krasner and all duly elected district attorneys should be able to have control over their own offices — except if they break the law or violate their oath of office.

“If there is an issue that is happening at the district-attorney level concerning to the legislature, it should be addressed comprehensively with all district attorneys, and not targeting just one,” DePasquale added.

Other rumored Democratic candidates include former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and Bucks County Solicitor Joe Khan. Former Philadelphia U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain and State Rep. Natalie Mihalek (R., Allegheny) are among the potential Republican candidates.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia) was the first Democrat to join the race for auditor general, and hopes to challenge Republican incumbent Tim DeFoor next year. All three row offices — auditor general, attorney general, and treasurer — will appear on 2024′s ballots.

Inquirer writer Chris Palmer contributed to this article.