Scranton native Kathleen Kane has become the first woman, and first Democrat, to be elected to serve as Pennsylvania attorney general, according to unofficial results.
With 98.82 percent of precincts reporting statewide, Mrs. Kane led the Republican candidate, Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed, with 56 percent of the vote. In Lackawanna County, the margin was even greater, as she led with 72.2 percent of the vote.
Hundreds of supporters gathered at the Radisson at Lackawanna Station hotel in downtown Scranton on Tuesday night. As Mrs. Kane entered the ballroom, flanked by her husband and two sons, her father, Joe Granahan, waited on stage to introduce her, choking back tears.
Mrs. Kane thanked cheering family, friends, campaign staff and fellow West Scranton natives who helped her on the long journey to victory.
"This campaign has been long. It's been hard-fought. It's been spirited," she said. "Tonight, this campaign - it was never about me. It was about you."
Mrs. Kane vowed to use her four-year term to clean up dirty politics in Harrisburg, help battle drugs and gangs infiltrating Pennsylvania cities and take on fraud.
"We have a lot of work to do in the next four years," she said.
During the campaign, Mrs. Kane said that if she were elected, she would conduct a full investigation of the way the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal case at Penn State was handled.
In her first bid for elected office, the Waverly Twp. resident was given little chance of winning when she started her campaign. Ms. Kane, 46, graduated from the University of Scranton and Temple University School of Law, and spent a dozen years as a Lackawanna County assistant district attorney.
She prosecuted murder cases, helped set up the county court's mental health specialty court, ran the county's first insurance fraud task force and led the grand jury investigation of former Judge Frank Eagen in the 1990s. She left in 2007 to work on Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In the Pennsylvania auditor general's race, Democrat Eugene DePasquale, a state representative from York, led John Maher, a state representative from suburban Pittsburgh, with 50.4 percent of the vote with 92 percent of precincts reporting. In Lackawanna County, Mr. DePasquale had 61.2 percent of the vote.
In the Pennsylvania treasurer's race, Robert M. McCord led in his re-election bid, leading Republican Diana Irey Vaughan, a five-term Washington County commissioner, and Libertarian candidate Patricia M. Fryman, with 53.3 percent of the vote. In Lackawanna County, Mr. McCord has 65.5 percent of the vote.
The attorney general, auditor general and treasurer positions each have terms of four years and an annual salary of $152,443.
Contact the writers: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @hofiushallTT on Twitter; ksullivan@timesshamrock.com, @ksullivanTT on Twitter
(with 92 percent reporting)
ATTORNEY GENERAL
ââKathleen Kane (D) 2,805,955
David Freed (R) 2,021,069
Marakay Rogers (L) 114,017
auditor general
ââEugene DePasquale (D) 2,455,855
John Maher (R) 2,228,188
Betsy Elizabeth Summers (L) 185,824
State Treasurer
ââ Robert M. McCord (D) 2,583,469
Diana Irey Vaughan (R) 2,100,208
Patricia M. Fryman (L) 167,321