How important was the 2024 primary election in Pennsylvania yesterday? Besides being another milestone in the presidential rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, primary election voters yesterday decided to pit Republican David Sunday against Democrat Eugene DiPasquale for state Attorney General. That matchup could be democracy-level important, as The Citizen’s Larry Platt wrote earlier this year:
When one of the (gulp) nation’s leading presidential candidates has talked about terminating the Constitution, using the Justice Department to punish his political opponents, and deploying U.S. troops on domestic soil, who will be standing in the way of such Putinism? Who, in other words, will stand for the Rule of Law? Elected AGs, that’s who.
And yet: Here in Philadelphia voter turnout on April 23 was a paltry 17 percent. Ouch.
No doubt many people stayed away because the presidential candidates are already known. Some stayed away as a protest against President Biden’s support of Israel in the current conflict. Many mail-in ballots were invalid because they were not dated. Still, it is a shameful showing for America’s first city — and we must do better in November.
“Yesterday’s turnout made one thing clear: if voters are not motivated by their options, they’re not going to show up,” says Lauren Cristella, Executive Director of government watchdog group Committee of Seventy. “This is a demonstration of how many people regard this as their civic duty and will come out to vote no matter what. That about 75 percent of eligible voters don’t see the purpose in voting regardless of their excitement level is concerning, and all of us need to do more to make civic education and civic engagement a priority.”
Get ready now — make sure you’re registered to vote, that you sign up for a mail-in ballot, and that you know who’s running. You can start here:
PA ATTORNEY GENERAL
Former PA Attorney General (and later, Governor) Tom Corbett, describes the AG’s job this way: “You collect by suit and otherwise all debts, taxes and accounts due to the commonwealth, represent the commonwealth and law agencies in any action brought by or against the commonwealth, you administer the provisions relating to consumer protection and antitrust laws. That’s just a summary. There’s a lot more beyond that.”
“A lot more” includes, as The Citizen’s Larry Platt notes, protecting what we hold dear: “When one of the (gulp) nation’s leading presidential candidates has talked about terminating the Constitution, using the Justice Department to punish his political opponents, and deploying U.S. troops on domestic soil, who will be standing in the way of such Putinism? Who, in other words, will stand for the Rule of Law? Elected AGs, that’s who.”