Pennsylvania
Pa. election 2024: Who is Craig Williams, a Republican running for Pa. attorney general?
This story originally appeared on Spotlight PA.
Pennsylvania voters will elect a new attorney general this November, but Democrats and Republicans first must pick their candidates this spring.
Craig Williams is one of two Republicans running for his party’s nomination and will appear on the April 23 primary ballot.
The attorney general represents the interests of the state and the public, and defends Pennsylvania’s laws in court. In recent years, the office has defended the results of the 2020 presidential election against numerous attempts to overturn them.
Learn more about Williams below:
Who is Craig Williams?
Website
Born in Alabama, Williams graduated from Duke University, the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and Columbia Law School.
During his 28-year career in the Marine Corps, he was chief prosecutor at Camp Pendleton in California.
Williams also was a federal prosecutor in the District of Colorado and Eastern District of Pennsylvania, working on “child abuse, drugs, street crime, and fraud” cases, The Inquirer reported in 2008.
He later was a lawyer for Peco Energy Co., a Philadelphia-area electric and gas utility.
Williams was elected to the Pennsylvania House in 2020 to represent District 160, which includes parts of Chester and Delaware Counties. While voters in this area have consistently supported Republicans for the state House, they have also picked Democrats at the top of the ticket.
If the 2020 presidential election had been held under the current state House map, President Joe Biden would have won District 160 by almost seven percentage points. Williams has pointed to his success in the area as a reason Republicans should support him.
In his first term, Williams introduced a bill that later became a law allowing the state National Guard to provide cybersecurity support and training to entities including state and local governments.
He’s also sponsored bills that would give the Office of Attorney General concurrent jurisdiction over gun crimes in Philadelphia — meaning the state could bring charges even if a local district attorney has declined to — and that would require individuals convicted of sex trafficking to register as sex offenders. Both passed the state House but were not considered by the Senate.
Williams also chaired the state House’s impeachment managers in the 2022 effort to remove Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner from office. Managers are charged with presenting the case for removal to the state Senate. However, no trial was ever held due to procedural issues and court challenges.
With the state House under Democratic control, Williams has occasionally voted for that party’s priorities, such as expanding state background checks to all firearm purchases. However, Williams also voted against two other firearms-related bills, including one that would establish emergency risk protection orders, which would let law enforcement or family petition a judge to take away an individual’s guns if they are deemed a threat.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania
What the war with Iran could mean for gas prices in western Pennsylvania
The war with Iran could start impacting your wallet as soon as today.
Jim Garrity from AAA East Central says oil prices are up.
“They’re hovering around $72. They were pretty consistently around $65, $66 for a while,” he said.
Nationally, AAA said the average for a gallon of regular sits at about $3, up approximately six cents from last week.
In Pennsylvania, it’s around $3.12 a gallon, and in the Pittsburgh region, it’s around $3.24 a gallon. That’s actually down about four cents from last week.
Garrity added that gas prices this time of year would already be increasing, usually because of higher demand for the warmer months and the production of the summer blend of gas used for those months.
The impacts of what’s happening in Iran may not be immediate, which could be part of why our region and the state overall have not seen a spike yet, he said.
“It could be a couple of days later. It could be up to a week later,” Garrity said.
A lot of people are watching what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. Iran borders it to the north, and 20% of the world’s oil goes through it.
Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, and China gets a lot of that oil.
“If there is an impact there, you could see oil start to come in from other parts of the world, which has a downstream effect on [the United States],” Garrity said.
One way you can save on gas if prices increase in our area is by slowing down.
“When you drive faster every five miles, over 50 miles an hour, your fuel efficiency is going down,” Garrity said. “You’re making the car work harder, making the gasoline consumption less effective.”
Garrity added that in 2022, when our area and many others saw some of the highest gas prices ever recorded, people changed their driving habits.
“We saw people make seemingly permanent changes to their driving behaviors, driving less in general, consolidating trips,” he said.
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