Whether its hiding from voters by ducking public appearances or avoiding members of the Pennsylvania media, Kathleen Kane is running a campaign to hide her real record from Pennsylvania voters
HARRISBURG — Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason released the following statement regarding Kathleen Kane’s secretive campaign for Attorney General:
“Kathleen Kane has made herself unavailable to Pennsylvania voters interested in evaluating her credentials for Attorney General. What’s worse is that the few times she has gone on the record to discuss her experience, she has misled and exaggerated her credentials. The secrecy surrounding Kane’s campaign begs the question: if Kathleen Kane is unwilling to endure the public’s scrutiny in her campaign, what is she hiding?
“Kathleen Kane’s has not been open and honest with the electorate and her secretive campaign has disqualified her from seeking an office that demands the public trust.”
The stealth campaign of Kathleen Kane.
HARRISBURG (Oct. 22) — Sometime this week you will be able to turn on your TV and see both candidates for attorney general, in TV ads. Tonight you can tune in to see the Democrat, Kathleen Kane, and the Republican, David Freed, debate with a third-party candidate on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.
So at least reporters around the state and people trying to tell voters who Kathleen Kane is will know she is still alive and still in the race.
Because while Freed has kept up a public schedule of campaigning events, and welcomed media coverage and answered questions at length, Kane has ducked scrutiny more than any other Pennsylvania statewide candidate in my tenure covering statewide politics.
Freed accepted a half-dozen debates or forums. Kane ducked all, so far, but the one tonight and some joint appearances before editorial boards whose endorsements she sought.
Freed appeared for 40 minutes of PCN-televised Q & A at the Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon. Kane is the only statewide candidate in modern state history to cancel a scheduled appearance in that forum.
On one recent day as her staff told my staff she was making no public appearances and maybe she would be in the Harrisburg area the following week, I walked down to Second Street for a slice of pizza. When I picked up my order, my luncheon companion told me Kane had just walked by, as had U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Montgomery, in town to raise funds for Kane.
Kane’s staff said it was a private event and she had no time then to talk to us or the other hordes of Capitol reporters all trying to arrange to travel with her so they could tell their readers about her. The same thing happened this week again. She came to downtown Harrisburg, two blocks from the reporters trying to cover her campaign, and ducked them all.
Now just to be clear, for a sitting governor or senator to act this regally and imperially would be unprecedented.
It was easier, much easier, to ride along with Sen. Arlen Specter when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, or Rick Santorum when he was the third-ranking Senate GOP leader, or Ed Rendell or Tom Ridge when they were mid-term governors, than it is to find out where Kathleen Kane is campaigning.
Compared to Kathleen Kane’s campaign, Gov. Tom Corbett’s team are Chatty Cathy’s of information.
How unavailable has she been? She has done less with state reporters and is harder for them to reach than Sen. Bob Casey Jr., whose non-campaign for re-election has made his race from safe to close.
And those are major elected officials, all of whom know the drill. No one has ever tried to go from being an assistant local prosecutor to attorney general while completely bypassing scrutiny as Kane has.
The only reason she can do that is her husband’s cash. She won the primary because he ponied up $2 million.
Her Democratic mate on the statewide ticket, Eugene DePasquale, sends out e-mails begging reporters to come to his fund-raisers just to cover his campaign. Kane? She’s off at her undisclosed locations, raising money because hubby doesn’t want it all on his tab this time.
Her fall TV ads start today, but since Freed’s fund-raising has apparently caught up to Kane’s, as GOP activists are determined to win this race, she will not have the huge edge in a loan from her wealthy husband that won her the primary.
So with about two weeks left in this race, Kane has to start defending and explaining herself and letting Pennsylvanians see more of her and letting reporters watch her earn votes. And maybe even agree to more than one debate.
A lot of rich people think the world only gets to deal with them on their terms. But democracy has a wonderful way of finding people out.
Kane has managed up until now to avoid the public scrutiny that Freed has welcomed. Hopefully voters will demand her stealth campaign ends now.
The people of Pennsylvania never promised Kathleen Kane a Rose Garden campaign. She shouldn’t expect one or be allowed to get away with one.
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