The May 20 Democratic primary pits incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner against challenger Patrick Dugan, a retired Municipal Court judge.
Krasner says voters should support him for a third term because of his success making Philadelphia “a safer and freer city,” with a historically low number of homicides, even as the DA’s office has worked to avoid jailing people unnecessarily and to exonerate those who were convicted unjustly.
Dugan contends that many residents are unhappy with Krasner’s approach. He points to a spike in killings and other crimes earlier in Krasner’s tenure as well as persistently high rates of retail theft. The former judge vows to crack down on repeat offenders and improve the hiring and training of the office’s lawyers.
At the same time, they seem to agree in some areas, such as the threats posed by the Trump administration, and the importance of diversion and rehabilitation programs to help young offenders and others avoid prison or continued involvement in the criminal justice system.
Krasner appears to be the frontrunner. In 2021 he beat a primary challenger by 33 points, and a poll commissioned by his campaign reportedly found that as of early April he led Dugan by 37 points. Dugan’s campaign dismissed the internal poll as unreliable and argues that voters want to see tougher prosecution of criminals.
Dugan has also significantly outraised Krasner in campaign contributions and won a string of endorsements from the Philadelphia Building Trades Council and many city employee and labor unions. Krasner touts support from two AFSCME locals and a few other labor organizations, as well as several City Councilmembers and state legislators.
Whoever comes out on top in the primary will be on track to win the November election, as there’s no Republican candidate this year.
Impactful and controversial
Krasner was elected in 2017 as part of a wave of progressive district attorneys across the country, and quickly became a controversial figure.
He fired prosecutors who he thought weren’t aligned with his philosophy. He ramped up exonerations of wrongly convicted people and charged more than 50 police officers and other law enforcement officials for committing various abuses.
He sharply curtailed prosecutions for minor drug offenses, retail theft and prostitution, and focused on moving more offenders into diversion programs. His office also sought to effectively eliminate cash bail, recommending no bail for many defendants and very high, unaffordable bail for violent suspects.
As COVID-19 brought soaring rates of shootings and homicides, some critics blamed Krasner for not keeping potentially dangerous arrestees behind bars. He responded that his office has had a high conviction rate for shootings and gun homicides, and says studies show that more incarceration does not reduce crime. He attributed surging crime to national trends and to operational challenges that police and courts faced during the pandemic.
Krasner won the 2021 primary and general elections by wide margins, while also becoming a popular punching bag for politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, locally and across the country. In 2022 the state House of Representatives voted to impeach him over the city’s gun violence crisis, although the effort to remove him foundered in the courts.
The legislature and Gov. Shapiro also authorized a special prosecutor who could take over prosecution of crimes on SEPTA. Krasner was unable to block the move, but the attorney hired for the position has yet to prosecute anyone.
Hopes for further reforms
As he runs for a third term, Krasner is highlighting sharp drops in crime in the past couple years, as homicides plummet below the annual number when he was first elected. He attributes the decline in part to his office’s support for groups that do anti-violence and prevention work in the community.
He talks about the DAO’s potential role in prosecuting white collar, pollution and other offenses that the federal government is pulling back on under President Donald Trump — although he says he would need more funding to hire former U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to take on those cases.
Krasner also says he’d like to do more in key areas like expanding alternatives to prosecution, reducing overly punitive sentences and unnecessary incarceration, expanding prevention programs, avoiding wrongful convictions, and keeping juvenile offenders out of jail.
Krasner has praised some of Dugan’s judicial work, for example in establishing Veterans Court, which aims to move defendants into drug treatment and diversion programs. But he also argues that electing Dugan as DA would represent a retreat from the office’s efforts over the past seven years to hold law enforcement officials accountable for misconduct and overturn unjust convictions.
Judicial leadership during the pandemic
Dugan is a former Army and Army Reserve officer who served as a military lawyer and held other positions. After his initial Army service he worked as an attorney, and was appointed a Municipal Court judge in 2007.
He touts his work helping launch diversion programs, including Veterans Court, which he called a “national model” that lowered recidivism below 10%, and the city’s Eviction Diversion Program, which also received wide attention for preventing displacement of tens of thousands of renters.
During the pandemic he started and participated in COVID court, where masked judges went into jails to move along cases of prisoners stuck in prison due to a judicial backlog. He created a resource hub in the basement of the Criminal Justice Center, where anybody can get help making mental health appointments, assistance with benefits and other aid, he says.
Dugan served as President Judge for about five years and was also appointed to serve on the state Supreme Court’s new Judicial Ethics Advisory Board. In 2023, he ran for Superior Court and came in third in the Democratic primary.
“The worst thing” for Philly?
Dugan argues that “Krasner is the worst thing that’s ever happened to Philadelphia,” pointing to the spike in murders earlier in the DA’s tenure. He cites specific cases in which people arrested for violent crimes were allowed out on bail and went on to commit homicides, or received what he describes as lenient sentences.
Dugan, who was raised in Frankford, has criticized Krasner for having grown up in the suburbs and moved to the city, and for going outside the region to hire assistant district attorneys from top law schools. He says that has created a less-experienced DA staff with less familiarity with the city, less success in court, and high turnover.
Krasner responds that his office spends more time training new hires than his predecessors did and has typical turnover rates.
Dugan contends Krasner doesn’t get along well with other city officials and agencies, stymieing interagency crime-fighting efforts; Krasner says he has good relationships with Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. Dugan told City & State that poor cooperation by the DA’s Office diminished Veterans Court and killed the former Dawn’s Court, for sex workers; Krasner and others say Dawn’s Court failed because it offered bad deals and defense attorneys declined to participate.
Dugan wants to restructure the DA’s office into six geographical divisions, each with a prosecutor who will keep community members updated on cases from their area. He’s also spoken in general terms about releasing fewer people after arrest and holding more criminals “accountable,” whether through detention or diversion.
He said he would consider seeking the death penalty in exceptionally severe homicide cases, while Krasner has called for its elimination in Pennsylvania. The state hasn’t executed anyone since the 1990s and a moratorium is currently in effect.
For more on the DA candidates, check out WHYY News’ story on the race.
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2025-05-08 14:26:45
