Oct 16, 2023 3 min read

Should our district attorney follow the law?

Is it not reasonable to expect the district attorney of Washington County to follow the law?

Unfortunately, our current district attorney, Jason Walsh, appears to believe he is above the law. There are many finance laws that govern campaigns, but probably the most basic and widely known of these laws is that any political advertisement must state who paid for it. On every political yard sign, every political commercial, and every political mailing, there is a disclaimer about who paid for the advertisement. There is a good reason for that, because it is the law.

However, Walsh’s signs do not say who paid for them.

When you decide to run for office, you must get a candidate’s packet from the county elections office. In this packet, it clearly states, “All printed materials must include a disclaimer such as “Paid for by….” When the elections office is made aware that a candidate or campaign committee have advertisements that do not have the required “paid for by” disclaimer, a letter is sent telling them that they need to add the disclaimer. If the candidate or committee does not add the disclaimer to their advertisements, the matter is referred to the district attorney.

The elections office did send Walsh a letter during the primary election about his advertisements not including the required disclaimer – I know, because I have contacted the office on numerous occasions about this matter. Since such matters are referred to the district attorney and Walsh is currently the district attorney, clearly he will not prosecute himself for this violation. But one would like to think that the district attorney would feel compelled to follow the law out of a sense of integrity and duty, not because there lacked any real legal consequence for him.

Every other candidate in Washington County running for county office, Republican or Democrat, has the required disclaimer on their signs. Do you want a district attorney who thinks he is above the law? Do you want a district attorney who thinks he can get away with whatever he wants because he is district attorney?

If elected, Walsh’s entire job would be to prosecute people who are not following the law. If Walsh expects you to follow the law – if every other candidate in Washington County can follow the law – shouldn’t we expect him to follow the law as well?

Christina Proctor

North Strabane

Christina Proctor is the chair

of the Washington County

Democratic Committee.