While Republicans in the Pennsylvania General Assembly have largely led the effort to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, one Democrat representing parts of the city is releasing an ad with the same message.
Democratic state Sen. Jimmy Dillon, who represents most of Northeast Philadelphia, posted a digital ad on social media touting his support for impeaching the progressive Democrat.
“He is the only Democrat endorsed by the Philadelphia FOP and is also the ONLY Democrat in the Senate who supports the impeachment of Larry Krasner,” says a sponsored campaign ad. “Jimmy ALWAYS puts our safety before politics.”
Dillon was first elected to the state Senate in 2022 in a special election to fill the seat previously held by Democrat John Sabatina, who won the Common Pleas Court seat. Dillon defeated Republican Sam Oropeza by 13 points to fill out the rest of Sabatina’s four-year term, but now faces a challenge from Republican Joe Picozzi in November.
Picozzi also supports efforts to impeach Krasner.
“I support removing Krasner as quickly as possible, either by impeachment or at the ballot box,” Picozzi emailed the Capital-Star. “As senator, I will push for Philadelphia to move to an open primary system to enable all Philadelphians to participate in key decisions about their future. I will fight vigorously to unseat Krasner next year as the voice of Northeast Philadelphia.”
Krasner, who was first elected as Philadelphia’s district attorney in 2017, remains a talking point in the district’s race. In the 2022 campaign Oropeza announced the introduction of articles of impeachment against Krasner, while Dillon described himself as not “Jim Kenney or Larry Krasner,” a reference to the city’s last mayor and current district attorney, and said he was supporting Carlos Vega in the Democratic primary over Krasner, according to Northeast Times.
Krasner is currently serving his second term as Philadelphia District Attorney and is up for re-election in 2025, and Questioner from Philadelphia in April he announced that he planned to run again.
Krasner became and was one of the faces of progressive criminal justice policy several Democratic prosecutors targeted by Republicans in response to racial unrest following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. Krasner sailed to victory in his two previous offers, although he lost nine precincts in Northeast Philadelphia in 2021.
In November 2022 The Pennsylvania House of Representatives, then controlled by the GOP, voted 107 to 85 to send articles of impeachment to the state Senate, accusing Krasner of dereliction of duty and refusal to enforce the law, obstruction of a special committee authorized to investigate his office, and violations of professional ethics, judicial procedure, victims’ rights and the state constitution. All Republicans except then-state Republican Michael Puskaric (R-Allegheny) voted for impeachment. No House Democrat voted to impeach Krasner.
House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, a Democrat representing part of Philadelphia, accused Republicans attempts to overthrow the will of the people through impeachment.
Dillon was the only Democrat in the state Senate to vote for two resolutions establishing the rules for the impeachment process against Krasner.
Jay Costa, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, did not immediately respond to the Capital-Star’s request for comment.
Both Dillon and Picozzi expressed their opposition to Krasner during the current campaign and so it is topic of discussion in the 172nd District of the Pennsylvania House of Representativesalso located in Northeast Philadelphia.
Krasner’s impeachment was not a major issue in the current legislative session. The The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on September 26 that the articles of impeachment were valid expired at the end of the 2021–2022 legislative session.
The race for the 5th Senatorial District has not received as much attention as some other state Senate races this cycle, although the Senate Republican Campaign Committee (SRCC) pointed to senior social media posts from Dillon’s business account that contain racist content and homophobic language . SRCC sent out several press releases criticizing Dillon for these posts, calling them “disqualifying.” Dillon denied making the postsclaiming that other people had access to his account at the time.
On Monday, SRCC sent out another press release with another senior post from Hoops 24/7 account in 2015 who wrote: “NE1 looks 2 will be lucky for 2 nights, outside Wells Fargo around midnight 10,000 women drinking and reliving the glory days of freestyle music.” Dillon’s campaign denied that he also posted such a post. Campaign spokeswoman Brit Crampsie told the Capital-Star: “This edition of SRCC is more of the same lies. Taking decades old posts written by other people and making defamatory accusations against Senator Dillon. He didn’t write it and he doesn’t say it like that.”
