Candidates

Attorney General

We have found that all of our primary candidates have admirable personal stories and accomplishments in public service, so we want to choose who we believe will be the strongest candidate to run against the Republican nominee in November. We consider three criteria for our recommendations.

1. Their performance at PA Democrats State Committee – As members of the PA Dems State Committee, Valerie Pawuk, Bedford County Dems Chair, and Dave Popp, State Committee Person, speak directly with statewide candidates and hear the candidates speak to groups on multiple occasions before the state committee holds a primary election endorsement meeting. We believe the results of the endorsement meeting are important because of the multiple interactions state committee members have with the candidates. A candidate must receive two-thirds of the state committee votes to be endorsed by the state party.

2. Their work ethic – Are candidates willing to do the work? Many candidates will call county chairs and state committee members, and when they contact us, we ask if they would be willing to meet with Bedford County Democrats. Candidates who are willing to do the work will make the calls and will either come to Bedford County or meet with our county Dems on a Zoom call.

3. Do they have the organization to run a statewide campaign? – We get our first indication of organization during nominating petition seasons. Candidates circulate nominating petitions to get on the primary ballot. The most viable campaigns will make a good showing in the number of nominating petitions and the geographic distribution of the petitions they are able to submit to the Department of State.

Our Recommendations Follow

Attorney General – Eugene DePasquale

There are two rounds of voting at the state committee endorsement meeting. Anyone with less than 15% of the vote is eliminated after the first round. Jared Solomon and Jack Stollsteimer were eliminated. After the second vote Eugene DePasquale led with 164 votes, but not the two thirds needed for an official endorsement. Joe Kahn received 75 votes, and Keir Bradford-Grey 74.
Eugene DePasquale has met with Bedford County voters four times since last fall. He sought us out and asked to attend our fall dinner in October. He met with Bedford County Dems by Zoom prior to petition season. He returned for an in-person visit on April 6 and did another Zoom meeting on April 9. There is no doubt that Eugene is accessible to Bedford County voters.
Eugene DePasquale out performed all of the attorney general candidates with nomination petitions. An indicator of his strength as a statewide candidate can be seen by looking at the number of petitions and counties that collected petitions for a candidate. Eugene collected 693 pages of petitions from 63 of 67 Pennsylvania counties. The closest candidate was Keir Bradford-Grey with 495 pages from 49 counties.Looking at counties submitting five or more petition pages, it was DePasquale – 33, Bradford-Grey – 22, Solomon – 14, Kahn – 13, and Stollsteimer – 8. Maps showing the geographic distributions of the counties are presented below.

Eugene DePasquale