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SCRANTON — Embattled Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Tuesday she won’t seek re-election during a press conference on the day of the filing deadline for the state’s April 26 primary.
Admitting the decision was not an easy one, Kane told assembled media her two sons need her at home.
Kane said she went to Harrisburg to “clean up a mess” there and to rid the system of the “good old boy network.” She said she has worked hard to clean up corruption in state government and will, for the next 11 months, continue to do so.
“I told you I would fight corruption and I have,” she told a room filled with media in the Cait Center on Lackawanna Avenue in her hometown.
She said she is committed to continuing the fight against corruption during her remaining 11 months in office; however, being a single mother has placed increased demands on her with her children and she needs to be at home for them.
“This job is not about me,” Kane said. “This Commonwealth needs a full-time attorney general. I have loved being the attorney general and I love serving the people of Pennsylvania.”
She said she is comfortable with her decision not to seek re-election.
A Scranton native, Kane is currently facing criminal charges for allegedly leaking secret grand jury materials to a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News. She survived an attempt last week in the state Senate to remove her from office.
The first woman and first Democrat elected as the state’s top prosecutor, Kane has tied the criminal case against her to a pornographic email scandal she uncovered which involved a number of state judicial officials.
Having narrowly survived a Senate vote last week to remove her from the office she has held since 2013, Kane did not mention the charges. Rather, she said she must be a “mother first” to her two sons.
After reading her statement, she did not field questions from the media.
She did, however, take time to tout her office’s record of fighting corruption and drug crime, arresting child predators and protecting landowners in their dealings with natural gas companies. She also noted she was leading in the polls over her Democratic challengers.
With Kane out of the race, candidates who have filed heading into Tuesday’s deadline include Republican John Rafferty and Democrats Josh Shapiro, John Morganelli and Stephen Zappala.
Political reaction
Ed Mitchell, a longtime political analyst who has advised many candidates over the years, feels Kane made a smart choice in deciding not to run.
“I know she’s ahead in the polls right now, but I believe it would have been an uphill battle for her,” Mitchell said. “Once the campaign would start, there would be a lot of negative advertising and it would be prolonged.”
Mitchell also noted there are no guarantees Kane wouldn’t face additional charges, or convictions, as a result of her trial this summer.
Asked if he was surprised by the decision, Mitchell said he hadn’t given it much thought, but when he learned the news conference was being held in Scranton, it crossed his mind she would bow out.
Mitchell said there had been no speculation about Kane’s candidacy and he noted she remains “heavily in debt” from her last run.
“Raising money would be difficult for her,” he said. “And there are other impressive candidates in the race. It would have made for a wild race.”
Mitchell said Kane not running is in the best interest of the office of attorney general and of the state.
Kane’s tumultuous times
• Prosecutors in Philadelphia charged Kane in August with perjury and other offenses for allegedly leaking secret grand jury material to a reporter to smear a rival and lying about it under oath. Her trial is scheduled for the summer.
• Kane has denied the allegations, saying she has been targeted by an “old boys club” threatened by her work to expose the exchange of obscene and objectionable emails by employees of her agency, judges and others.
• The state Supreme Court suspended her law license as of October and recently rejected her request to reinstate it.
• Her tenure was marked by an exodus of top aides, public feuds and eyebrow-raising misstatements.
• Gov. Tom Wolf called for her to resign six months ago.
• The state House of Representatives voted last week to empower a committee to look into her impeachment, a process expected to play out in the coming months.
• The email scandal has resulted in dozens of people in government being disciplined or fired, the abrupt retirement in 2014 of one Supreme Court justice, Seamus McCaffery, and pending ethics charges against another, Michael Eakin. The emails disclosed include nudity, sex acts and content derogatory toward women, gays and ethnic and religious groups.
