By Jennifer Quintana and Michelle Provencher
As November 3rd gets closer, Philadelphia voters are looking into the candidates for Philadelphia District Attorney's open seat. Democrat Seth Williams and Republican Michael Untermeyer are the two candidates running for the city's DA position after longtime Philadelphia District Attorney Lynn Abraham announced that she would not run for reelection.
Democrat Seth Williams is a West Philadelphia native, who has over 10 years of experience working in the District Attorney's office. Williams has worked as an assistant DA, and more recently as the Inspector General.
Williams says if elected, he will put into place a 10 part plan that would improve how the District Attorney's office will work with the police, community and the city courts. If elected District Attorney, Williams will try and control the gun violence in the city by enforcing a widespread strategy that includes prosecuting illegal gun traffickers. He also says he will lobby for gun laws that will restrict people from purchasing more than one gun in any given month.
Republican Michael Untermeyer has 15 years of experience as a prosecutor in Philadelphia, most recently he worked as a counsel to the Office of Inspector General. He also worked as an assistant District Attorney for four years.
If Untermeyer is elected, he would implement a “zero tolerance” policy on on illegal handguns. If someone is arrested for being in possession of an illegal handgun, when it comes time to pay for bail, they would have to pay in cash instead of paying a 10% down payment. During the trial, the person being tried would not be given a chance at a plea bargain and for every convicted offender, they would have to spend time in jail.
Both candidates have proven that they have experience working in the District Attorney's office, come election night Philadelphia residents will decide which of the two candidates will be the next District Attorney.
Al Schmidt, a former Senior Analyst for the Government Accountability Office, is running on a platform to eliminate tax payout waste, combat public corruption by running annual audits on every city agency, and to protect city employee pensions. For more information on his campaign click HERE.
Alan Butkovitz is the incumbent candidate. He promises to identify cost-savings and new revenue opportunites (he boasts identifying over $400 million in his first term), he vows to to oppose the BRT plan to re-evaluate citywide full value reassessment of real estate and also protect city employee pensions. Click HERE for more information on his campaign.
