April 25, 2017

Our Choices: Larry Krasner for D.A., Alan Butkovitz for Controller

They Support Our Values!

The votes have been cast and our members have overwhelmingly chosen to endorse Larry Krasner for District Attorney and Alan Butkovitz for Controller in the May 16th primary election. Here's why.

LARRY KRASNER FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY

Larry Krasner and only Larry Krasner can be depended upon to deal with the mass incarceration problem that plagues Philadelphia.

Our city has the highest incarceration rate in the country. Krasner is running on a platform of ending the current system of mass incarceration that targets black and brown communities. Instead, he will focus on programs and policies that address problems from the root and that provide alternatives to incarceration.

He will end the system of cash bail that keeps too many low-income people stuck in jail without convictions, supports an end to stop-and-frisk policing and will divert low level drug offenders for treatment, not punishment.

Larry Krasner has a 30-year track record of standing up for people’s movements. As a civil rights attorney, he has defended for free thousands of people who have engaged in civil disobedience for social movements -- from Black Lives Matter to Occupy to Act Up to those arrested protesting school closures.

Krasner is also an environmentalist. Endorsed by Food and Water Action Fund, Krasner has pledged to bring Philadelphia’s polluters to justice, using all available means to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. In a city with endemic pollution and shocking rates of asthma in poor communities, Krasner will be a voice for environmental justice.

Krasner has an extensive criminal law practice. He has tried thousands of cases defending the rights of poor and oppressed people in criminal court including 80 wrongful conviction cases. He is intimately familiar with the problems in the DA’s office that he has pledged to clean up.

We see all too many politicians talk the talk. Krasner has spent thirty years demonstrating to us that he will walk the walk. We can believe his promises won't be empty ones and that Larry Krasner will bring real change to the DA’s office.

ALAN BUTKOVITZ FOR CONTROLLER

The City Controller's job is little understood but critically important to the success of City government when it focuses on performance of City Departments, as well as whether they spend their revenues honestly. And that's how Alan Butkovitz, who's held the job for over a decade, has interpreted his charge. He has made the Controller’s Office the lead anti-corruption agency in the city.

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More on Alan Butkovitz for City Controller

Over the years, Butkovitz's award winning office has uncovered scandals, exposed inefficient operating procedures and exposed life threatening practices. Although he has no prosecutorial powers, his discoveries have sent politicians to jail, and also caused policy changes that have saved lives and millions of dollars.

Several of his reports are worth highlighting.

For years escrow funds at the Sheriff's Office were pillaged with no response from law enforcement. Butkovitz's comprehensive performance audit of that office uncovered thievery on a massive scale and sent the Sheriff to jail.

Also noteworthy are two audits of charter school operations that laid out a litany of defects in their supervision and funding, and set forth a roadmap to curing abuses in overall and special education funding disparities.

Finally Butkovitz launched the "Anchor Procurement Initiative" in 2014 to get our large medical and higher education institutions to spend millions of their procurement dollars on locally produced products, promoting local business development, and jobs.

Alan Butkovitz has reinvented the Controller’s office, taken on powerful interests, and represented the people of Philadelphia well and will continue to do so, if re-elected.

Conclusion

The resistance to Trump has to begin by electing progressive fighters at the local level. That’s why it’s important for you to help us elect Krasner and Butkovitz on May 16. For more info on how you can help, please contact NN's Field Director for this campaign, Andrea Putnam at (310) 872-7089, or just fill in this form

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