Republican ready to challenge the status quo

Joseph Bongiovanni isn't exactly your typical 21st century Philadelphia politician.

He's a Republican.

The challenger to incumbent District Attorney Lynne Abraham doesn't seem to care that smoking hasn't been "PC" since the 1960s.

And he's the kind of straight-shooter who prefers making a joke to sugar-coating the truth.

Bongiovanni, who was a founder of the law firm Bongiovanni and Berger, hasn't run for political office since the 1970s, when he ran against George Schwartz for a seat on City Council. Although he lost the election, Bongiovanni said he fared better than any other Republican in the city.

"All the Republicans lost 9-to-1, I only lost 2-to-1, so I guess that was a great thing," Bongiovanni said.

In recent years, Bongiovanni has been involved in elections as an adviser to the Republican party, which may have been one of the reasons the GOP asked him to run against Abraham, a Democrat, this year.

"It wasn't something I actively sought," Bongiovanni said. "In the past four or five elections I've kind of served as a policy advisor to the Republicans, and they asked me would I consider being a candidate."

Although Bongiovanni said he was hesitant about agreeing to run -- calling the decision a "moment of weakness" -- he was quite clear about why he decided to enter the race.

Bongiovanni said he is running for DA "only because the alternative is so much worse."

"I wouldn't want to have another four years of my principal opponent," Bongiovanni said. "I just don't think it would be helpful to the city."

Bongiovanni says he has many problems with the way Abraham has done her job over the past 12 years, but says that his differences with her have more to do with the way she has enforced the law in Philadelphia than with politics.

"It's kind of strange because I don't know if the normal left and right makes much of a difference in the district attorney's office," Bongiovanni said. But he jokes that "unfortunately, all district attorneys by the nature of their very office have certain, like, latent fascist tendencies."

Bongiovanni does differ from Abraham, and his own party on one key political issue: the death penalty.

Abraham has been a strong proponent of capital punishment as a way of appearing tough on crime. The New York Times Magazine once dubbed her "America's deadliest DA" because she so frequently seeks the death penalty.

According to Bongiovanni, this is not in keeping with the prosecution strategies of any other city in Pennsylvania.

"Probably across the state district attorneys move for the death penalty in less than 15 percent of the cases," Bongiovanni said. "We do it, Lynne does it, in over 90 percent."

Although Bongiovanni does not personally support the death penalty, he said that if elected he would be bound by oath to seek capital punishment in some cases, as state law demands it for certain crimes. However, he said that the issue must be looked at more carefully, particularly, he claimed, because it has divided the city along racial lines.

"The reason why everybody cares about the death penalty, other than its a very important issue on it's own, I agree with that, but it has divided the city," Bongiovanni said. "It has polarized the city racially, and if you are an elected official you can't do your job if you have succeeded in dividing the population."

Bongiovanni went on to say that while he does not consider Abraham to be racist, she definitely has a negative image among the city's minority populations -- an issue that plagued her in May's Democratic primary against Alexander Talmadge Jr., her toughest opponent to date.

"She's not a racist," Bongiovanni said. "Does she have a pathological hatred? No. But she has a severe world outlook that is interpreted that way in her poor choice of words... and it makes her job impossible with this division that she has."

In addition to reviewing the way the death penalty is implemented in Philadelphia, Bongiovanni is recommending mandatory DNA testing in capital trials.

Bongiovanni said that he would avoid creating the tough image that Abraham has sought in favor of a more balanced and equitable one.

"She sees herself as being the most severe," Bongiovanni said. "I would like to be the most fair and cost-efficient."

But implementation of the death penalty is not the only issue Bongiovanni wants to address. Extending the statute of limitations on rape cases -- given the modern tool of DNA evidence -- is also at the top of his list.

Bongiovanni used the case of the Center City rapist, who murdered Wharton graduate student Shannon Schieber in 1998, as an example of why he feels the time limit must be extended.

"Most states have a much longer statute of limitations than we do," Bongiovanni said. "If we find the Center City rapist in Colorado, it may just be an interesting historical note, but we may not be able to prosecute. That's a silly thing, obviously."

In addition to reforming the prosecution of violent crime, Bongiovanni says he wants to improve the day-to-day operations of Philadelphia law enforcement. Among other things, he said he would like to see an increase in the number of locations where citizens can file private criminal complaints, and a lengthening of the hours that these locations are open.

Furthermore, Bongiovanni says that unlike Abraham -- who does not try individual cases herself -- he would want to spend actual time in the courtroom.

"I also, you know, went to all the trouble to go to law school," Bongiovanni said. "It would be hard for me to resist actually going in a courtroom and working... It might only be symbolic but you never like to have somebody do something you haven't done."

Abraham is widely expected to fend off any challenge by the GOP or any third party. In May, she defeated Talmadge in the Democratic primary, amassing 59 percent of the vote -- the closest margin of her career as DA.

Bongiovanni said he understood the challenge of overcoming Abraham's advantage, but felt it was possible.

"It is certainly an ambitious undertaking, but it is not impossible," Bongiovanni said.

And Bongiovanni has been able to garner support among some Democrats, which is accounted for in his campaign staff.

"Most of the people helping in my campaign are Democrats," Bongiovanni said. "We can't hold that against them."

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