With three weeks until Election Day and nearly 30,000 absentee ballots already cast, District Attorney candidate Pat Dugan appealed to voters Tuesday to “get off your butts and vote” in an attempt to achieve an upset victory over incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner.
Dugan is a registered Democrat, but is running as the Republican candidate after losing the May primary to Krasner. At a press conference outside City Hall, he presented himself as a nonpartisan candidate looking for voters who would put aside their party affiliations and confusion over his affiliation and support him for the good of the city.
“”Are you a Republican? Now I won’t vote for you. Wait, you’re a Democrat? I won’t vote for you,” he said, describing comments he’s heard from voters. “I’m talking nonsense to all the people who wear political T-shirts 24/7. That’s not the point. The issue is bigger. This race for district attorney is bigger than left, right, red and blue. “
Dugan boasted the endorsement of David Oh, the 2023 Republican mayoral candidate and former At-Large council member. He was also endorsed by the PA Forward Party, a three-year-old group that, according to party representative Robert Grabel, advocates “nonpartisan leadership and a commitment to integrity.”
“He’s focused on doing his job, not on political labels,” Grabel said. “Legislators should make laws. Sheriffs should protect their communities. Prosecutors should uphold justice, not act as defense attorneys or political agents. Pat Dugan understands this, and that’s why we stand with him.”
Dugan too he repeated Krasner’s criticism repeated throughout the campaign, accusing him of allowing defendants to be released and committing more crimes, failing to crack down on retail theft and failing to cooperate with other officials on crime-fighting strategies.
Krasner declined to comment.
Silent campaign
Dugan, a retired city judge, lost the May Democratic primary to Krasner by 29 points, or nearly 44,000 votes.
There were no Republican candidates, but Republicans eager to unseat Krasner mounted a campaign in support of Dugan and gave him about 7,000 votes, more than enough to make him their candidate.
After initially securing the nomination, Dugan accepted the nomination, drawing livid condemnation from Krasner and other Democrats, who accused him of lying when he had previously said he would not run for the Republican nomination.
The local Democratic Party leadership has repeatedly declined to endorse the staunchly progressive Krasner in the past, but in August party chairman Bob Brady said, “I will do everything in my power to re-elect our Democratic candidate, Larry Krasner.”
From then on, the race was quite uneventful. Dugan has been posting a steady stream of videos attacking Krasner on social media and holding fundraisers, but the district attorney has not been involved in the campaign at all and it is unclear whether he has any campaign staff.
In mid-September, Dugan’s campaign said he had only about $32,000 in the bank and had raised $27,000 in contributions since the beginning of June. Krasner had $60,000 in cash on hand and recently raised $55,000.
That’s far from it over $1.4 million they stopped together before the primaries.
In addition, three extremely controversial ones state races to retain the Supreme Court have attracted a lot of attention, while the DA competition has received little press coverage over the past few months. Although both men participated in a debate and several forums during the first campaign, no such meetings have been held or even scheduled since then.
Anti-party party
Grabel said the PA Attack Party is building its infrastructure and helping Dugan, but did not specify how. Dugan’s campaign has reported no party contributions, and state campaign finance records do not indicate it has contributed to any candidates.
Across the state the party approved three Democratic and three Republican candidates for various positions, Grabel said. They include Bucks County Democrat Danny Ceisler a challenge to an incumbent Republican Sheriff Fred Harran and Delaware County Republican Tommy Feldman for county controller over Democrat Louis Rosenthal.
In Adams County, the party has endorsed judicial candidate Paul Royer, a Republican who won the Democratic primary on write-in votes, and is supporting litigation to establish an open primary election in Pennsylvania in which any voter could vote in the primary regardless of party affiliation, Grabel said.
“We are proud of candidates who bridge divisions and gain support across party lines. Closed primaries should not decide such prestigious and prestigious races,” he said. “Every voter deserves to vote regardless of registration.”
Dugan said he hopes the Forward Party’s endorsement will highlight his efforts to appeal to voters across party lines.
He argued that many in both major parties agree with him that Krasner is pliable on crime — including some elected Democrats who won’t publicly admit they’re voting for him — but that he needs more of them to overcome their apathy and get to the polls on Election Day.
He emphasized that only 16.6% of those registered took part in voting in the May primaries.
“Count it real quick. 83.39% stayed home. Nobody votes in this city. Get up off the couch and vote, people. This is the only way you will make a change in this city, if your voice is heard,” he said. “I want you people sitting on the couch to stop complaining and vote.”
Interest in races to retain the Supreme Court seat could boost voter turnout in the Nov. 4 general election, but it’s unclear by how much.
In the final DA contest of 2021, turnout increased only slightly between the primary and general elections, from just over 21% to just under 22%, a difference of about 5,400 voters. Somewhat similar to this year, the election four years ago featured a contentious state Supreme Court race that contributed to mass voter disengagement.
However, Dugan will need to do much better than he did in the primary to win. For example, if he and Krasner both receive the same number of votes, he would need about another 38,000 votes to win.
About 177,000 people voted in this year’s May primary election, and 230,000 people voted in the November 2021 general election, when Krasner was re-elected to the presidency.
As of Monday, the city Board of Elections had received 28,919 absentee ballots for next month’s election, including several defective ballots that need to be corrected before they can be counted, a spokesman said.
