MEDIA, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Several Delaware County elected officials were sworn in on Tuesday, including District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer — who must now perform the balancing act of enforcing while he campaigns for another position.
Although COVID-19 presented a number of unforeseen obstacles for elected officials across the county and country, Stollsteimer said he’s happy with what he was able to accomplish in his first term.
“The work we’ve done is highlighted by the 68% reduction in gun homicides in the city of Chester,” he touted. “We've done great work prosecuting wage theft in Delaware County, starting the first environmental crimes unit in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and holding polluters accountable.”
In his second term, Stollsteimer, a Democrat, said he wants to expand the Safe Streets program he implemented in Chester to help reduce violence.
“We want to do similar initiatives in the eastern part of Delaware County, particularly in the community of Upper Darby,” he said, “the sixth-largest municipality in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that's seen an intolerable level of gun violence recently.”
However, Stollsteimer is in an interesting position. In addition to his district attorney duties, he’s also running for attorney general in Pennsylvania. That means he has to split his time between campaigning and prosecuting.
“I've been working to make sure I have the right team in place to do the work on the ground while I might be traveling to different parts of Pennsylvania,” he said, although he believes he can handle both tasks without diminishing the quality of his office’s work.
“I’m really proud of my leadership team. I think that’s going to give me the ability to campaign for attorney general and also be district attorney.”
Stollsteimer is running against four other candidates in April’s Democratic primary. They include Keir Bradford-Grey, Philadelphia’s former chief public defender; former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale; former Bucks County solicitor Joe Khan and Pa. state Rep. Jared Solomon.