Jared Solomon joins race for Pennsylvania lawyer common

By MARC LEVY Related Press

Democratic state lawmaker Jared Solomon stated that he’ll run in subsequent 12 months’s election for Pennsylvania lawyer common, an workplace that has performed an enormous function in preventing drug trafficking, suing opioid makers and defending the battleground state’s 2020 presidential election.

Solomon, who’s from Philadelphia, is the fourth Democratic candidate to affix the race for the state’s prime regulation enforcement workplace, which will likely be vacant after the 2024 election.

Solomon stated he can be an lawyer common who can draw on his expertise working a neighborhood-improvement group, working towards anti-trust regulation and going towards political machines.

“That is taking it to a bigger degree and projecting that imaginative and prescient and expertise and work ethic and battle for the entire commonwealth,” Solomon stated in an interview.

Solomon, 44, was first elected to the state Home of Representatives in 2016 after beating out a 42-year Democratic incumbent. He beforehand joined the Military, grew to become a protection lawyer within the Pennsylvania Nationwide Guard and labored as a lawyer in personal observe.

Within the state Home this 12 months, he supported main laws introduced up by Democratic management, together with a measure to boost the state minimal wage to $15 by 2026, broaden protections for LGBTQ+ individuals and let authorities briefly seize somebody’s firearms in an effort to forestall suicide deaths, home violence and day-to-day violence.

Earlier than that, he grew to become the Home Democrats’ appointee in a Republican effort to question Philadelphia’s twice-elected district lawyer, Larry Krasner. Solomon referred to as the GOP impeachment bid an “anti-democratic transfer to disclaim the votes of hundreds of Philadelphians.”

Three different Democrats — former state Auditor Normal Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn and Keir Bradford-Gray, the previous head of Philadelphia’s public protection legal professionals — already introduced their candidacy for the Democratic nomination.

York County District Legal professional Dave Sunday introduced his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

The lawyer common’s workplace has a finances of about $120 million yearly and has performed a important function in arresting drug traffickers, preventing gun trafficking, defending state legal guidelines in court docket and defending shoppers from predatory practices.

The workplace helped lead state attorneys common in settlement talks with pharmaceutical distributors and producers over the opioid disaster. It additionally performed a central function in defending the integrity of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election towards repeated makes an attempt to overturn it in state and federal courts by former President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign and Republican allies.

Democrats have received the final three elections for lawyer common.

The final elected lawyer common was Democrat Josh Shapiro, who was elected final 12 months to be governor. Shapiro stepped down as lawyer common in January when he was sworn in as governor and appointed his prime deputy, Michelle Henry, to complete the final two years of his time period as lawyer common.

Henry, a former Bucks County prosecutor, has stated she doesn’t plan to run for the workplace. Her time period expires in January 2025.