Lively debate for DA candidates

In their scrappiest debate so far, the Democratic candidates for Philadelphia district attorney trained fire on front-runner Seth Williams, rankled each other with pointed questions, dropped their guards to reveal untold parts of their life stories, and hurled powerful shots at Dan McCaffery, who was absent because his elderly father was gravely ill.

After weeks of forums and meet-the-voters events, the candidates could easily parrot, even parody, each other's talking points, and they did in a rough-and-tumble atmosphere at the Philadelphia Free Library last night.

The debate, attended by about 100 spectators, was sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the election watchdog group Committee of Seventy.

In addition to Williams and McCaffery, the Democrats in the May 19 primary are Brian Grady, Michael Turner, and Dan McElhatton.

The candidates previously had been reluctant to joust openly or heavily criticize the incumbent, Lynne M. Abraham, who after 19 years as the city's chief prosecutor elected not to run again.

But last night marked a turning point. While their gloves were not off, their elbows were out.

In one dust-up, McElhatton took exception to Grady's statement that city residents distrust the justice system and by extension anyone who runs for district attorney.

McElhatton said Grady should speak for himself and not draw his fellow candidates into that characterization.

"Well, they are telling me that they don't trust you," Grady roared back, reeling off the addresses of the dangerous street corners he has visited while campaigning and goading McElhatton, "Where have you been, Dan? Where have you been?"

Moderator Tamala Edwards of 6ABC asked Williams whether he could be comfortable with the other men on the panel if he did not win and one of them did.

"I feel comfortable with the three other men here today. They are good lawyers," Williams replied.

Asked in a follow-up if his comfort level extended to McCaffery, Williams rolled his shoulders, looked down for a second, then deadpanned: "I feel comfortable with the three others here today."

Each of the candidates has served a varying length of time as a former assistant district attorney. Only Williams, who served most recently and was a supervisor of the Repeat Offender Unit, has run for district attorney before. He narrowly lost to Abraham in the 2005 primary, garnering 44.2 percent of the vote.

His fellow candidates pressed Williams about his record as former inspector general of Philadelphia, implying that he left a lot of unfinished business.

Williams said he was proud of his accomplishments and had done as much as he could with the resources he had.

In response to a question about morale in the District Attorney's Office, Williams took a direct shot at Abraham.

"The current D.A. and the first assistant have ruined morale. Ruined it," he said.

Turner said he would try to stem school violence "by assigning more police officers to the schools."

"You can't assign police officers anywhere," Williams interjected, adding that was the purview of the police commissioner - not the district attorney.

Several members of the audience applauded, and some shouted "Yeah!" when Grady said the way to crack down on people who shoot at police officers was to crack down on people who shoot at anybody.

When Williams had a turn to pose a question to anyone, he asked McElhatton what he thought was deficient about McCaffery's candidacy. McElhatton cited a news report about a questionable real estate deal McCaffery was involved in.

He said the deal indicated that McCaffery lacked "the judgment and ethical foundation" to make decisions as district attorney.

Asked in a final round of questioning to reveal an unknown fact about themselves, Williams said he had lived in an orphanage before being adopted, Grady said he had been born with a congenital problem and had to learn to walk at a Shriners hospital, Turner said he has twin 15-year-old boys who are a parenting challenge, and McElhatton, drawing a laugh, pointed to his jet-black mane and said, "This is real hair, and it is my own."