Who’ll be PA’s next attorney general? Where the candidates stand on corporate reform, election integrity and more

This article is a part of Every Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism with lead support from the William Penn Foundation, and additional funding from Lenfest, Comcast NBC Universal, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.

While the presidential race takes up most of the attention ahead of 2024 Election Day, Pennsylvania votes for several top state officials, too. 

Six candidates for attorney general appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, and they’re vying to fill a critical role. The state AG represents the public’s interests, and handles all state-level legal matters. 

What does that mean for tech, innovation and entrepreneurship? Most directly, the Attorney General’s Office regulates the law and policies surrounding emerging fields. For example, they’ll lead legal approaches to topics like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data privacy, business complaints and consumer protection.

In Pennsylvania, there are big shoes to fill: they’ll follow now-Gov. Josh Shapiro, who stepped down from the position in January to take on his current role. Representing the mainstream political parties in the race are Dave Sunday, a Republican, and Eugene DePasquale, a Democrat.  

The candidates’ public platforms this year focus on issues like the opioid crisis and reproductive health, two hot topics going into Election Day. At a public forum in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, hosted by Spotlight PA with Technical.ly as a media partner, those were the topics that took up much of the discussion. 

Amid those conversations, though, the candidates revealed stances on issues like how they approach economic development, community building and even regulating tech. 

A Democrat, a Republican and a Forward Party candidate

Sunday, a career-long prosecutor, positions himself on public safety and battling the opioid epidemic. When it comes to tech, he’s previously commented on the need for increased consumer protection, as it puts more seniors at risk of fraud.

Leaning more on his political experience, DePasquale is relying on his previous policy endeavors to win the race. His platform on business mentions going after scammers and corporate greed. 

Forward Party candidate Eric Settle also participated in the forum. The experienced lawyer mostly represented healthcare companies, so he’s made the topic a large part of his campaign. 

The other three candidates, Green Party’s Richard Weiss, Constitution Party’s Justin Magill and Libertarian Robert Cowburn did not speak at the forum. Neither Weiss or Cowburn have been particularly vocal on tech and entrepreneurship issues, but it is worth noting that Magill’s private law firm specializes in business startups. 

Scroll down to see what Sunday, DePasquale and Settle have to say about topics like increasing Pennsylvania’s workforce, election integrity and corporate reform.

Sunday’s vision to tap a workforce of formerly incarcerated people 

Between discussions on mental health and opioid addiction on Wednesday, Sunday’s thoughts on business kept coming back to helping formerly incarcerated people return to work. 

According to Sunday, there’s a strong economic impact of better opioid epidemic management that leads to fewer people in jail.

“We saw the impact on our taxpayers not having to pay as much taxes, you see the impact on families by keeping families together, the impact on the economy by seeing people that are coming out of incarceration that are getting jobs and career jobs,” Sunday said. 

By giving people a chance to rebuild their lives financially after serving time in jail, it can even benefit employers, he said. 

As Pennsylvania looks to increase the laborforce, it can help companies find more people to hire and formerly incarcerated people have a lower turnover rate than other employees, according to Sunday. 

DePasquale on the AG’s role in election integrity, business taxes

DePasquale covered topics from election lawsuits to tax reform to social media regulation in his answers to the panelists’ questions. 

When asked about his first days on the job, DePasquale said that in a contentious state like Pennsylvania, he expects there will be election lawsuits to deal with. 

“You’ve got to be prepared to defend the state and prepared to defend the voters,” he said, “to make sure whoever the voters wanted to win Pennsylvania is the one that has the court decisions go their away.”

When it comes to corporate and mid-sized tax policy, he mentioned getting rid of tax loopholes to make Pennsylvania more competitive and raising the minimum wage. 

Plus, while DePasquale did not offer ideas for social media reform, he did briefly mention wanting to address its impact on mental health for young people.

Andrew Yang-backed Settle keeps his eye on healthcare reform

Founded by Andrew Yang, who was also the force behind the now-defunct Venture for America, the Forward Party lists driving innovation and entrepreneurship as one of its main tenets. 

Settle didn’t touch much on those topics during the forum, instead keeping the focus mostly on his healthcare background, with some broader philosophies on the AG role and election integrity as well.

“Because it’s very likely that there will still be election contests going on,” Settle said, “my job as an independent attorney aeneral will be to step in immediately to make sure that those litigation are moving forward”

Generally, though, he said his private experience lends an asset other candidates may not have. 

“Obviously there’s the kind of the efficiencies and the motivations of the private sector,” Settle said, “but I think what I bring is that sort of substantive knowledge of various industries that are highly regulated.”