Editorial: Sunday's stance promises apolitical focus on AG's job

The job of a state’s governor is to steer the executive ship.

The governor takes the laws and budgets passed by the legislators and the departments of the government and finds a way to apply them. That can mean implementing policies. It can responding to changing circumstances. It can mean arm-wrestling with the opposition — sometimes in the state capital and sometimes in Washington.

The job of an attorney general is to represent the state in court.

Sometimes the attorney general is a prosecutor. As the state’s top law enforcement officer, part of the job is making decisions about criminal cases and investigations that may cross jurisdictions or have a broader scope than a local offense.

Sometimes the attorney general is the plaintiff’s attorney for the people of a state. That means addressing civil issues. The AG can sue, pressing the state’s interests in lawsuits where the goal is not putting someone in jail but to stop an action or recover financial compensation.

They are not the same job, but in recent years, the path to the governor’s mansion increasingly runs through the attorney general’s office. Of the 50 U.S. governors right now, about 25% served as their state’s attorney general. That includes Gov. Josh Shapiro, who rose to the top state office — and is frequently mentioned as a presidential contender — after serving as the state’s top lawyer.

He isn’t the first. While being mayor of Pittsburgh or Philadelphia or a lawmaker or auditor general used to be the way to govern the Keystone State, that’s changing. Tom Corbett was attorney general twice, nonconsecutively, before winning the governorship.

But Dave Sunday says he is different.

Six months into his term in office, Sunday told TribLive he is content to leave political and policy legal wrangling to the governor while he focuses on community protection.

“I ran for AG to follow the law and keep the community safe. I’m not the type of guy who’s going to throw lightning bolts from in front of the courthouse. I believe that the best way to show success is by being effective at your job,” Sunday said.

The idea is very different from what has become the norm in the offices of attorneys general across the country. Democrats and Republicans alike are flocking to their fellows to file lawsuits on behalf of their constituents on a myriad of issues: immigration, reproduction, health care, funding cuts, etc.

Shapiro was a frequent party to suits like the litigation against opioid manufacturers to recoup damages for addiction and overdose. In February, he sued the Trump administration over a freeze of funding he called unconstitutional.

That case shows what appears to be the future of a Democratic Shapiro-GOP Sunday Harrisburg, where policy and political lawsuits may spring from the governor’s office instead of the attorney general’s desk.

It may be a smart move for Pennsylvanians.

The split keeps the more inherently political role of governor focused on more inherently political tasks, while the attorney general stays tasked with law enforcement and civil court issues.

Of course, it’s possible this apolitical stance is a diplomatic dance for Sunday. It allows him to distance himself from controversial issues that are bound to anger some in a state that is very split on party lines.

It’s still an intriguing choice for one of the highest row offices in state politics.