How Pa.’s candidates for attorney general would work with Philly DA Larry Krasner

HARRISBURG — Whoever becomes attorney general will have to work with one of the state’s most provocative officials: Philadelphia‘s progressive district attorney, Larry Krasner.

Krasner, first elected in 2017, has become a bogeyman to Republicans in Harrisburg, who blame his unapologetic demeanor and focus on criminal justice reform for a perceived high crime rate in Philadelphia. (The high crime rate is just a perception, Krasner correctly notes, as gun violence is declining across the city and Philly is on track to have one of its lowest homicide rates in 10 years.)

The Pennsylvania attorney general is the top law enforcement officer in the state, responsible for offering resources to each of the commonwealth’s 67 district attorneys and completing criminal investigations. But as the state’s most populous city, Philadelphia has the most prosecutors and handles the most cases, making it certain that the two officials will need to work together.

» READ MORE: Meet Eugene DePasquale and Dave Sunday, the front-runners to be Pa.’s next attorney general

Democratic candidate Eugene DePasquale, a former state auditor general, and Republican Dave Sunday, York County’s district attorney, both said in interviews they would try to form relationships with Krasner, who said he would do the same, although he is supporting DePasquale.

DePasquale, for his part, said he knows Krasner personally and noted that the Philly DA has been overwhelmingly elected in the city twice.

“I know Larry can sometimes be a little brisk, but in the same token, my job is to work with all 67 DAs,” DePasquale said. “So it doesn’t matter who you are, what your party is, my job is to work with everybody to make sure communities are safe, and I’ll certainly do that with Larry and the other 66 DAs.”

Both Sunday and Krasner hinted that their relationship would be potentially adversarial — though both promised to work together regardless of political party.

While Krasner’s support for the Democratic candidate is not surprising, political party affiliation has not always informed his conflicts in the past. He and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, the state’s former attorney general, fought publicly with each other over a number of issues.

For Sunday, Krasner’s criminal justice approach overshadows his record of holding violent criminals accountable.

“You can’t just have redemption all day,” Sunday said in an interview last month. “You can’t have redemption without accountability.”

Krasner questioned whether Sunday would enforce the laws for his wealthy supporters like Jeffrey Yass, cofounder of Susquehanna International Group, and suggested that the York County intervention programs that Sunday boasts about are based on work Philly has been pioneering. (Sunday disputed this and said at least one intervention and prevention program was in place before either of them was elected.)

“Here’s the news, Dave: We’re better at public safety,” Krasner said. “I understand you’re on the mean streets of York with your 37% reduction. We’re at 40.7%. … Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so thank you for that, Dave Sunday.”

“I’m sure that the Philly DA is looking to support someone who would have a similar approach to violent crime as him,” Sunday said, implying that DePasquale would be soft on crime. “Because the Philly DA has isolated himself from the rest of the state, the last thing he wants is an AG that will not enable him and will work as hard as they can to bring other ideas and thoughts to increasing public safety to the citizens of Philadelphia.”

Some of the conflict between Krasner and Sunday dates to their early days as district attorneys. Krasner chose to leave the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association early in his first term — a decision he stands by today.

Krasner said he removed Philly from the association because although the city has 40% of the state’s prosecutors, it had only one vote in the association. So the group could go to lawmakers in Harrisburg and declare that the district attorneys association supported a policy change, even if the state’s biggest city opposed it. He also was concerned that the association was pursuing policies that were “good for mass incarceration, bad for Philadelphia.”

“It’s one of the best things we ever did,” Krasner said about leaving the association.

Krasner also said his office has always collaborated with others who want to work together, including daily work with the current attorney general, and highlighted the results of the statewide gun violence task force in reducing gang violence in the city.

But for Sunday and other DAs, including Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, a Democrat who ran in the primary election for attorney general, the move was another way for Krasner to isolate himself and go out of his way to avoid collaborating with his colleagues.

Krasner’s conflicts with officials in Harrisburg are not new.

He was impeached by a GOP-controlled state House in 2022, and most notably, Democrats and Shapiro supported a GOP plan to create a special prosecutor appointed by the attorney general to investigate crimes on or near SEPTA that Krasner argues is a way to usurp the will of Philadelphia’s voters, who twice elected him the city’s top prosecutor.

Attorney General Michelle Henry, who was appointed by Shapiro to fulfill the remainder of his term, appointed Michael Untermeyer as SEPTA’s special prosecutor, after Krasner’s first legal bid to strike down the law as unconstitutional failed. The challenge now awaits a ruling from the state Supreme Court.

Both candidates for attorney general said they would use the SEPTA prosecutor, though DePasquale said he disagreed with its creation.

“My daughter is on that SEPTA train all the time, so safety on SEPTA matters a lot to me,” DePasquale said. “I would rather have a much more collaborative approach.”