Primary profile: D.A. candidate Dan McCaffery

Philadelphia voters go to the polls in less than a week for the May 19th primary election. Five Democrats and one Republican are vying to be the city’s next District Attorney. This week we are profiling all six candidates to find out what separates them on the controversial issues.

Philadelphia voters go  to the polls in less than a week for the May 19th primary election. Five Democrats and one Republican are vying to be the city’s next District Attorney. This week we are profiling all six candidates to find out what separates them on the controversial issues.

Listen:
[audio: 090514lfprofile.mp3]

Democratic candidate Dan McCaffery was born in Germantown and raised in the Northeast, where he still lives. He works as an attorney in Jenkintown. McCaffery says part of the reason he wants to become D.A. is motivated by his family history. His parents were Irish immigrants who came to the U.S. to escape religious persecution.

McCaffery says as District Attorney he would call for the death penalty on a case-by-case basis.

With the District Attorney’s Office facing budget cuts, Mc Caffery says he is ready with ways to save money.

McCaffery: To see whether or not we can replace of the duties that are being performed now by prosecutors with lower paid paralegals. A lot of the work currently done by District Attorney or Assistant D.A.s is probably better off handled by lower paid paralegals such as the prep work, the return work on the files, things of that nature.

McCaffery says he would like to go after municipal corruption cases, but he says budget constraints will make it tough.

McCaffery: Will we prosecute municipal corruption where we can? Absolutely. But we will not under any circumstances compromise the core mission of the office which is to make the city of Philadelphia safer by investigating or engaging in long term investigations which are going to deplete the assets of the office.

McCaffery says he would focus the resources of the D.A.’s Office on protecting Philadelphians from violent crime.