John, it’s crunch time as our first two justice champions that we endorsed this year are quickly approaching their Election Days.
Recently, we announced our endorsement for Matt Dugan for District Attorney of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, adding to our previous endorsement of Parisa Dehghani-Tafti for Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church in Virginia.
There’s so much at stake. Both candidates are facing tough challenges from opponents who want to continue locking up Black and brown people for minor offenses and perpetuating mass incarceration instead of actually getting people the help they need.
That’s right, Election Day for both candidates is right around the corner, with Early Voting starting as soon as May 5th for Parisa and May 9th as the deadline to request an absentee ballot for Matt.
Let’s quickly recap why we need these two justice champions in office:
Matt Dugan is the Chief Public Defender for Allegheny County, and he’s running against the current DA, Steve Zappala. Zappala has been called out for racist plea deals, not hiring Black prosecutors, and he even charged a woman who was having a miscarriage. He has been in office since 1999 and Matt is giving him his strongest challenge yet.
If we push hard to make sure that Matt defeats Zappala, he will advocate against the use of cash bail in Allegheny County to reduce the unnecessary incarceration of poor and marginalized communities. He will also ensure transparency and integrity within the office by implementing an open-file discovery process that will allow defense counsel to have full access to prosecutorial evidence. Matt will also focus the resources of his office on violent crime, invest more in victims services, and work to reduce racial disparities in the justice system, building a system that works for all members of the community.
We were proud to endorse Parisa for her election 4 years ago and now she is running for a second term. She has done incredible work over the years — from stopping the use of cash bail to reducing the jail population by 30%. She has also implemented discovery reform practices to streamline the prosecutorial process, worked to hold police accountable and prevent the unnecessary use of force, helped build a restorative justice program, made it easier for people with mental health issues to get the help they need, and instituted victim-focused prosecution to ensure victims know exactly who is responsible for their case.
John, these local elections have a massive impact on the community and are also integral to our larger movement nationally. Every leader we elect, whether it’s for a big city or a small town, adds another ally to this fight and inspires even more leaders to enact the kind of policies we are seeing from DAs like Matt and Parisa.
That’s why we need everyone to chip in and help these bold leaders defeat the GOP mega-donors, police unions, and other powerful actors who are spending millions to stop our movement for justice.
In solidarity,
Real Justice PAC
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Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org. Authorized by Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, candidate for Commonwealth’s Attorney, and Friends of Matt Dugan, not authorized by any other federal, state, or local candidate or candidate’s committee.
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