DA O’Pake switches to Republican affiliation
SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE - Michael O'Pake at a Mahanoy City Borough Council meeting in 2017.
POTTSVILLE – Schuylkill County’s district attorney, a longtime Democrat, is now a Republican, citing conflicting values in the national party.
Mike O’Pake, a Mahanoy City native now living in Norwegian Township, was first elected as district attorney in 2017 and had an unsuccessful bid for a county judgeship in 2023.
“As a public servant in Schuylkill County for over thirty years, I have prided myself on being fair, consistent and impartial in recommending sentences for individuals convicted of violating the law,” O’Pake said in a media release Friday. “I have always had the support of Law Enforcement during my time as District Attorney because I have been tough on crime and vigorously prosecuted those individuals that violate the law.”
He said that, over the last two election cycles, the Democratic party has moved towards defunding law enforcement and decriminalizing drug crimes and quality of life violations.
“Instead of focusing on working people, law and order, child safety, drug-free schools, and safe neighborhoods, the new version of the Democratic Party has embraced issues that do not impact most Schuylkill County residents, such as open borders, sweeping gun control, increased taxes and other similar issues,” O’Pake said.
He said the party “no longer supports the values which I believe in personally and professionally.”
O’Pake said he believes in backing and supporting law enforcement instead of defunding it, freedom of choice pertaining to vaccines, personal responsibility for the rule of law, among others.
He said he’s run the office in a bipartisan manner hiring members of both parties as prosecutors and staff members, adding that he does not base prosecutorial decisions on politics.
“I stand firm behind my record of serving the people, not politics,” O’Pake said. “Nothing about my political affiliation change will impact how I run the District Attorney’s Office when it comes to staffing, charging decisions, case resolution and my dealings with Law Enforcement.”
The District Attorney’s Office is up for election this year.
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