Seth Williams at Drinking Liberally

I can't stress enough how incredible it is to meet a candidate for public office in a small group. I've met Chuck Pennacchio who is running for Senate and now Seth Williams who is running for Philadelphia District Attorney.

Williams came to talk to the group at Drinking Liberally over at Ten Stone. He sat down with about fifteen of us and chatted for a bit on either side of the tables we lined up against the front windows. He's a Philly native, went to Central High and then went on to Penn State where he had quite a legacy. After that, he got his law degree from Georgetown. A nice pedigree combining local knowledge and academic scholarship.

I believe his biggest running point is his community based prosecution program. He said that just about everyone gets appointed by location except for the ADAs. He wants the DAs to be assigned to a specific area and get to really know the community and work with the community they are assigned to. Here's a .pdf of his plan from his website.

I didn't take notes at the event and I'm sorry I didn't. It's also after 3am and I'm sure that's having an effect on my memory. I haven't seen any summaries of the meet just yet. Perhaps I'll have a better memory of the smaller points of the meeting tomorrow.

The photos above were from the event and taken by yours truly. If you'd like to use them elsewhere, ask me first.

Comments

[Frank]

Nicely done...he sounds like a great guy. And Mr. WIlliams' campaign should contact you to use those photos...those are great shots of the candidate and show him looking strong...and listening...great combo for a DA.

[Matt]

Thanks for the recap--I was really sorry to have missed this one. I can honestly say that every time I've gone to DL, I've met at least one amazing new person.

It's also after 3am and I'm sure that's having an effect on my memory.

I'm sure that the pints of lager had nothing to do with it ;)

[SpinDentist]

Sorry I missed Drinking Liberally last night. I met the new Senate candidate, though. Alan Sandals.

http://www.allspinzone.com/blog/index.php?itemid=53#c

I also invited him to Drinking Liberally in the future.

[dragonballyee]

I resent that Matt! The pints would have had more of an effect on me if I had more than one. I didn't want to puke all over the DA candidate and the blogger elite. But wouldn't that have been a funny story?

And thank you Doc for the Sandals synopsis. He seems to be in the same lawyer circle as Williams. That would be an interesting partnership...

[Julie]

I went to college with Seth and knew him well, and lurk around a variety of Philadelphia blogs including this one and others. As far as candidates go, Seth is one of the best you will ever see. He is incredibly bright and no one cares more passionately about Philadelphia than he does. He is exactly what you would want in a candidate for your city - smart, passionate and very, very well versed about city life. Plus, I know of no one who can get along with a wide variety of people the way that Seth can. He's a perfect choice for us.