(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Why two PA district attorneys could lose their Dem primaries on the same night they win GOP nod [1]

['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-05-11

Dugan himself has avoided identifying himself as a "progressive," but he has the support from some prominent liberals like Lee and billionaire philanthropist George Soros, as well as the county Democratic Party. Soros himself has contributed $760,000 to a PAC that’s aired ads attacking Zappala’s record, which is considerably more than what the challenger has raised. The district attorney, though, is hoping to turn this into a liability for his opponent by running ads that, while not mentioning Soros, declare that Dugan’s "entire campaign is funded by shady dark money groups." Those spots also argue that Zappala is "reforming the system and giving people a second chance."

The incumbent has the backing of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, but his Republican allies may be more helpful in ensuring he has a place on the general election ballot no matter how well Dugan does next week. Back in March news broke that at least one local Republican party leader was encouraging GOP voters to write down Zappala’s name on their own primary ballots, an effort the head of the county GOP neither endorsed nor denounced. Republicans usually have little chance at winning in a blue bastion that Joe Biden took 59-39, though the dynamics could be different if a longtime Democratic elected official like Zappala were the GOP candidate.

And there’s good reason to think enough Republicans will give him the chance. An election expert said that the district attorney would need to secure at least 500 write-in votes, which is the number of signatures that would have been required to get on the GOP primary ballot, in order to win with a plurality of support: Zappala himself earned nearly three times that many write-ins four years ago in another primary where no Republicans were on the ballot, though he also won renomination 59-41 that year. Zappala’s team said in March they didn't ask any GOP groups to support a write-in campaign, though the district attorney himself said in December he could again secure the Republican nomination this way.

Another high-profile Democratic primary is taking place 300 miles to the east in Northampton County in the Lehigh Valley, where District Attorney Terry Houck has outright announced that he wants Republicans to write down his name in case he loses renomination to former local Judge Stephen Baratta. The GOP isn’t running a candidate here even though Biden won just 50-49 here in 2020 four years after Donald Trump took the county 50-46.

The local GOP doesn’t seem especially excited about the idea of having Houck as its standard bearer, though, as the county chair said last month his party might run its own write-in option. No names have emerged, however, in a contest where the winner would need at least 250 votes to advance.

Houck and Baratta have largely feuded over how well the district attorney’s office is functioning. Baratta has faulted the incumbent for "significant" turnover and singled out cases where he believed Houck showed "incompetence, fundamental unfairness, and ethical concerns." The challenger, though, has also run to the left by pledging not to require pretrial bail for people charged with low-level offenses who can’t pay.

Houck, for his part, argued that his opponent has lied about his tenure, saying, "I think the voters have had their fill of this Trump-like mudslinging and baseless accusations." The incumbent has instead declared he’s run an effective operation while expanding diversionary programs while saying of his foe, "He would have no idea what was going on in the district attorney’s office."

Houck has also cast Baratta as "a very, very lenient judge" and highlighted how the challenger backs Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s decision to continue Pennsylvania's moratorium on the death penalty. "If you were to go into office, would it be you or one of your subordinates to tell these families to deny what a jury has imposed?" Houck asked at a debate. Baratta pushed back by saying he’d use his own judgment, "And if the law is unfair like it is now, and discriminates against other people, I am not going to impose the death penalty."

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/11/2168748/-Why-two-PA-district-attorneys-could-lose-their-Dem-primaries-on-the-same-night-they-win-GOP-nod

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/