Allegheny county stephen zappala, morganelli, two long careers in Law Enforcement. County commissioner josh shapiro with a different look. I think my opponents take a narrow view of the office. There are claims that morganelli and the camps are working together. The three face off on live tv. You are watching the 2016 democratic debate for Pennsylvania Attorney general. Good evening. Welcome to our live coverage from nbc and telemundo from outside of philadelphia. We want to thank you for watching tonight. We are less than three weeks way from a primary election that will play a key role in the state of pennsylvania. We are so pleased to have all three Democratic Candidates running for Pennsylvania Attorney general here with us tonight. Theyre standing in alphabetical order from left to right. Starting with northampton District Attorney, John Morganelli, josh shapiro and stephen zappala, jr. We have gone over the ground rules with the candidates but for those of you at home the candidates will have one minute to answer each question. If we determine that a rebuttal is needed the candidates will then have 30 seconds to respond. As youre watching along we invite you to join the conversation on twitter. Using the paag debate. We have only an hour and theres a lot of ground to cover so lets get started. We begin with this weeks hot topic. Are d. A. Morganelli and zappala coordinating against schaap . Lets begin with mr. Morganelli. Are you working with mr. Zappala . Thats absolutely untrue. First of all, i dont think anybody in their right mind would spend 600,000 of hard earned Campaign Cash to help someone else get elected. Steve zappala and i have been colleagues but we had not had that much contact over the 18 years that steve has been d. A. And the 24 years i have been d. A. Were at opposite ends of the state and were not working together. I think mr. Shapiro has manufactured this story and some of the media has bought on to it. Because he recognizes that he is the least qualified candidate in this raise. Were prosecutors were running for a job thats Law Enforcement. Thats the nature of the position. Mr. Shapiro has never been a Law Enforcement officer. He never been an assistant District Attorney or a public defender. He has nothing to do with Law Enforcement. Hes a career politician thats how he described himself on his facebook page. Most of us run from the designation of politician. Josh embraces it. He was in the legislature. And hes a county commissioner. But this is a Law Enforcement position. It requires prosecutorial experience, knowing how grand juries run. I want to get elected and im hoping that steve stays as Allegheny County d. A. Are you working with mr. Morganelli . No. I think one of the biggest distinctions between john and i as a candidate and josh, is our life is in a courthouse. Our life is evidence. Our life is facts. Thats what we deal with. We dont deal with rhetoric and when somebody touches or concerns facts that need to be addressed because youre talking about pay to play pay to play mentality which i have seen in several areas all over this state. Its one of the areas i intend to take up as the attorney general of pennsylvania. Mr. Shapiro . Well, these gentlemen have told you what they are and what they think i am. Let me tell you what i am. Im a fighter for all pennsylvanians. I have spent my career in Public Service going out and looking after the needs of pennsylvanians. First as a state representative fighting for my district. Then as a county commissioner. And now as chairman of the Pennsylvania Commissioner on crime and delinquency. Ive stood up for the values. I have been an executive who knows how to make government work. I have worked with victims in communities across pennsylvania to make them safe. Look, i dont know what these guys are up to but i can tell you what im up to. Each and every day i travel the commonwealth of pennsylvania. Telling people what ill do for them. Telling people how ill protect their water, make their communities safer and go out and protect seniors from fraud. These are the things that im all about. I have spent my career doing this. And i look forward to doing it as your next attorney general. Thank you. All right. We want to get right to the issues that affect the people of pennsylvania. This years election comes as the Attorney Generals Office is embroiled in scandal. Kathleen kane faces charges for allegedly leaking grand jury information. You all said you want to repair the badly damaged office and restore integrity and confidence. Give us a specific plan for how youll get the office back on track, mr. Shapiro . I appreciate the question. First thing i did in this campaign was put out my integrity agenda. It contained things that i would call for and things that i would do on day one. In the a. D. s office. First, every single employee when im attorney general will be required to follow a code of conduct. Second, mandatory ethics training. Third, all of our expenses and expenditures will be made public. Fourth, a gift ban. Fifth, we make sure we establish a casey commissioner who would commanden the operations of our office and examine all of State Government to make sure were operating at optimum ethics. My first hire would be a chief diversity officer to make sure my folks represent the best of pennsylvania. When you take an oath to protect the people of pennsylvania, you better come from where theyre from, look like them and be sensitive to their needs. Thats my plan to restore integrity to the office of attorney general. Mr. Zappala . I had ive heard the question about integrity at that office all over pennsylvania. Integry think is demonstrated by your actions. Im going to do what i have done for 18 years as District Attorney for Allegheny County. Were going to create another scheme, different scheme to combat violence and illegal hand guns and make sure that politicians at the highest levels understand that i have the willingness and i have prosecuted and convicted politicians. And public corruption will not be tolerated. Well make sure that the technology is implemented all over pennsylvania so that our police as they drive the highways theyre pulling people over for the right reasons, not because theyre racially profiling people. Well make sure major crime investigators are well tool and be on the front of the conviction integrity. Across this commonwealth, everybody in Law Enforcement is going to understand that if you arrest somebody for a crime they didnt commit, thats a tragedy. Well live with that thought every day. Mr. Morganelli . I think were people of integrity and any one of us can restore integrity in the office. What i want to do is i think we have to clean house at the top of the office. There was a lot of holdovers from the Corbett Administration in this administration now. Theres kane people who are actually some of them have undermined their own boss. Theres lots of issues of what these people are doing. Whether they violated grand jury secrecy or not. I think that as pennsylvanias longest serving d. A. , im not the oldest, but im the most senior d. A. In pennsylvania i think i have that reputation already. Among the Law Enforcement community. I have been elected seven times by the citizens of northampton county. Im going to get rid of this these people at the top. Were going to bring in new, young prosecutors from all around pennsylvania. I met many of them in my years as president of the state d. A. s association. And i know a lot of the folks out there that are really good. Theyre going to be based on what i think they can bring to that office, the expertise and how you restore integrity is by bringing folks in who know the job. Time. Next question, Kathleen Kane made Child Predators her top priority. Beyond repairing the a. G. s office, what would you do . I would implement dedicated units for Domestic Violence prosecutions and we need to keep the family unit together. Those strike at the heart of our community. Over the years we have demonstrated over and over again were prepared to protect our children. I took upmc before the grand jury because children were being hurt at one of the campuses and they didnt report those as required by law. Just this week in Allegheny County we took a plea to the teacher who abused a child. Took advantage of a student. Hes serving time in the penitentiary. We have three more cases that well be prosecuting over the next two weeks. And again, i think you have to demonstrate youre prepared to take action on these issues by example. Mr. Morganelli . We have to multitask. All issues are important. Child predators a huge issue we do every day. Were out there arresting forgots folks. But i think pennsylvania is facing drug addiction and opiate problem. We have to develop a strategy to attack that. I think that strategy involves Law Enforcement. Cracking down on the drug dealers. Id like to create a new transnational crime unit inside the a. G. s office that goes after national and International Gangs that bring drugs into the country and end up in pennsylvania. I think that we need to look at the compliance section of the a. G. s office to look at Health Care Providers who are getting some folks hooked on opiates. Its education, but theres so in issues. The gun issue is huge. I want to get the guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill and children and the attorney general can implement a regulation that requires lost and stolen guns to be reported to Law Enforcement. Theres so much we can do. Im not just a one issue person. I think you have to do it all. Thats what we do every day as prosecutors in pennsylvania. Mr. Shapiro, your signature issue . So i appreciate where youre going with the question. You want to drill down on one issue. I think it would be somewhat irresponsible for an attorney general to say this is the one issue im going to focus on, but let me focus to the broader one issue to get at the heart of your question. I think the biggest challenge we face in our Justice System today in pennsylvania is really a lack of fairness. A sense that certain people get certain rules and others get other rules. We have the sense that only certain people count in our Justice System. When you have Supreme Court judges and others swapping homophobic and misogynistic emails back and forth with each other, no wonder people question the office. We have to restore that honor to our Justice System so that every Single Person believes that gierting a fair shot. If we do that, then all the decisions we make thereafter are ones that people can have confidence in. That i think is job one for the attorney general. Thank you. District attorney morganelli, you mentioned the heroin and the illegal drug crisis. A heroin epidemic is sweeping across our state and Governor Wolf has called it a Public Health crisis that impacts one in four pennsylvania families. How would you take on this problem with the existing laws . We begin with you, mr. Morganelli. These kind of issues involve a multifaceted approach. First of all, we have to crack down on those dealing drugs and theyre selling poison to our children. I have arrested three individuals for whats called deliver Drug Delivery resulting in death. Someone dies because someone gave them drugs. We have to send a message that if you sell hoirp to someone and they heroin to someone and they die, youll be prosecuted. We have to identify where are these drugs coming in to . I believe the facts are clear. 99 of the drugs are coming into the United States and into pennsylvania come in through the seven world we are mexico. Theyre driven by trucks into pennsylvania. Thats why i think we need to create a new unit in the Attorney Generals Office that would focus on transnational gangs. Gangs are formed for one purpose. A criminal enterprise to make money. Drugs or human smuggling. We have to be out in the communities and we have to do our what were doing through the p ba, a pba association. Its a multifaceted approach. Your thoughts . Heroin is the number one accidental kill here in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. Its surpassed Car Accidents recently. I have been dealing with this issue as chairman of the Pennsylvania Commissioner of crime and delinquency and we established a task force that brought Law Enforcement and Human Services together to try to tackle this issue. You see in this commonwealth, we need to begin to understand that drug addiction is a disease not a crime. And we need to begin to treat those with the disease with services, with care, with drug court, other problem solving efforts within our Justice System. You see, i understand that i will be merciless when it comes to the dealing with the drug dealers but compassionate when it comes to dealing with those with addiction. We have made sure that First Responders have naloxone, a life saving drug for those overdosing. We have made sure that communities have places to throw away their old medication, of which roughly 20 of them are opioids which can be used if they get in the wrong hands. This has to be a comprehensive effort. Its what i have been doing and what ill continue to do as attorney general. District attorney zappala . I havent run competitively for 16 years and its amazing the politicians this is a revolution we have a problem with heroin and opioids. The heroin market was reintroduced in the late 80s and reintroduced by gangsters across the border. We attack it through a Drug Task Force and i would do it in the same fashion as the attorney general. You have to bring Law Enforcement agencies together. You dont treat it not just Law Enforcement. You dont treat it as a criminal justice matter but as a health matter. The war on drugs has failed. Because theres no distinction between the person who is drug addicted and the business of drug trafficking. Its a major business. On the other side, to mitigate against hurting people who are already hurting themselves we implemented in Allegheny County several special dockets that address drug addiction and Mental Health and we have done a good job in trying to help those persons not become resid cysts and keep them out of the system. All right. The position of attorney general is a law enforcer not a lawmaker. In the absence of new legislation, what are the creative ways you can use the office to reduce gun violence . Mr. Shapiro, we start with you. Sure. Theres a number of steps that we can take and ill take as attorney general and using the bully pulpit as a chief Law Enforcement officer of pennsylvania. First, we need to make sure that the florida loophole, someone who goes to another state, used to be florida and gets the carry permit and brings it into pennsylvania, that that stays closed. And i would any of the states that are weaker with reciprocity will be shut down. Second, comprehensive background checks. If youre gbuying it at a gun show and ill work the close the gun show loophole. In addition to that, we need to make sure that anyone who applies for a permit here in pennsylvania and fails gets prosecuted. Too oftentimes we let those people get back in the community. Ill also use the bully pulpit to make sure which expand background check, to make sure we require lost and stolen guns to be reported. We fight straw purchasers, the number one thing hurting our communities. Mr. Zappala . My sense is that the legislature does not have the will to change the laws. I think the nra is too strong a lobby, so i wasnt counting on that. From the very first time i took office as District Attorney, one of the things we did in connection with the Domestic Violence initiative we took a zero tolerance with batterers, those who beat women. We took their weapons and over the years when stand your ground was an issue i was very clear in my position. As a member of the executive board i went out with the Allegheny County caucus and i told them this is bad law. You have two gangbangers facing off in the street youll give them a defense if they kill an innocent child which unfortunately happened in our county. I think the straw purchases is a problem. They took what i drafted to harrisburg and they could. Get it done. Right now i wont have enough time to answer illegal guns. Sorry. Mr. Morganelli . For many years i have been advocating at least ten years or more that we need to the attorney general should take advantage of the powers under Consumer Protection to issue regulations, regulations have the same force and effect of the law passed by the lecture and under consumer safety make it mandatory that lost and stolen handguns must be reported to