Attorney General Josh Shapiro calls himself “the people’s lawyer.” Heather Heidelbaugh, his Republican challenger in the Nov. 3 election, refers to herself as “a lawyer’s lawyer.”
While Shapiro has garnered national headlines for his impassioned challenges against the Trump administration, Heidelbaugh says the office is one that should focus on the law and not on advocacy.
“I think when you look at some of the decisions he’s made, he comes at it from much more of a political viewpoint versus a lawyer’s viewpoint,” said Heidelbaugh, a former Allegheny County councilwoman and attorney with more than three decades of experience.
She said his rise to prominence has been at the cost of the commonwealth and its residents.
“There are a lot of cases that made headlines for him but to the detriment of other things, like working with the district attorneys and reducing criminality in the commonwealth,” she said.
Shapiro has clashed loudly with the Trump administration on a number of things, including a lawsuit against the administration for eliminating guaranteed contraceptive care, a lawsuit challenging the family separation policy at the border, and joining in a lawsuit to block citizenship questions from the 2020 Census.
“We have not shied away from the big fights, we’ve served as the people’s lawyer and put people before powerful institutions,” he said, and pledged to continue that route if reelected. “As things come up, the people can be sure to know I’ll be on their side and I’ll continue to take on these big fights.”
Shapiro has also garnered attention for his battles closer to home. He inherited the statewide grand jury that released a scathing and damning report detailed decades of alleged abuse within Catholic Dioceses in the state, and earlier this year a grand jury released a report accusing the state DEP over covering up dangerous practices on gas well sites.
Heidelbaugh questioned Shapiro’s creation of new units within the office, particularly the civil rights division, noting that the office is meant to defend the state in civil rights cases when the state is sued.
“It’s a very difficult position to be put in as an attorney,” she said.
Shapiro, who grew up in Montgomery County and served as a commissioner there, said his position gives him the means and the authority to take up positions if means protecting and fighting for Pennsylvania residents.
“I ran and I won four years ago to be a different kind of attorney general — someone who was willing to use the authority of this office granted to me by law to work for the people, not the powerful institutions,” he said.
He pointed his work to resolve the longstanding dispute between UPMC and Highmark and hammer out a contract to make sure Highmark insurance members could continue to see UPMC doctors.
“No other attorney general — or governor, for that matter — was about to secure access to health care for 2 million Pennsylvanians,” he said. “I worked that in order to get the deal done, which was life and death for many people in Western Pennsylvania.”
Heidelbaugh said her focus, if elected, would be on defending and litigating — not being a politician. She pointed to a number of what she called missteps by Shapiro’s office, including his push to release the names of unindicted priests in the diocese grand jury report that was ultimately shot down by the state Supreme Court.
“You really need a lawyer who understands the law to run what is essentially the commonwealth’s largest law firm,” she said. “The fact that he never practiced law — that he’s not a lawyer’s lawyer — created these scenarios.“
Heidelbaugh said she is a lawyer’s lawyer.
“It’s what I’ve done in my life – that’s a long time,” she said. “I understand deeply the law in many types of cases, and the difference between being a lawyer and being a politician.”
Shapiro reiterated that his office serves as the people’s lawyer.
“To minimize the work that this office can do to protect people’s rights is downright cynical,” he said. “It shows a complete lack of understanding about what the people of Pennsylvania needs from their leaders.”
Heidelbaugh’s battle has been uphill from the start, going up against an incumbent who has earned himself name recognition and out fundraised her more than 3 to 1: $7.9 million compared to her $2.3 million. She said looking at data from the 2016 election along with polling led the campaign to feel “we had a real path forward.”
“I truly believe in my heart it has been a phenomenal race if you factor in covid, the economic difficulties and the fact that I’m running against an incumbent,” she said. “I think we have done the unbelievable. No one has given us credit for that.”
Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, mguza@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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