By Kevin Zwick
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
UPPER MORELAND TWP. (April 12) – Former prosecutor Kathleen Kane brought out the heavy artillery on her opponent’s home turf, holding a rally with former President Bill Clinton in the Philadelphia suburbs on Thursday.
“It’s a simple question, a simple question: who will be more for the people of Pennsylvania?” Clinton said, noting Kane’s service for more than a decade as assistant district attorney in Lackawanna County.
“She’s the only candidate that’s literally spent years, years, using the power of the law to protect women and children from abuse, to protect seniors from financial scams, to protect the most vulnerable among us, by using the power of the law,” he said.
“…She’s the only person you can vote for who’s done that in this primary,” he said.
Kane and Clinton addressed close to 1,000 supporters here at the Upper Moreland High School gymnasium, where both aimed to draw distinctions between her and her opponent, former congressman Patrick Murphy of Bucks County.
Kane and Murphy are vying to be the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, a position no Democrat has held since it became an elected office in 1980. The primary is April 24.
Murphy recently touted his experience as an Army Judge Advocate General, where he prosecuted two terrorists while on duty in Iraq.
“I think the people of Pennsylvania (would be) proud that their attorney general served overseas prosecuting terrorists, and they’re not going to hold that against me,” Murphy said.
During the rally, Clinton acknowledged that Kane volunteered extensively for his wife during her 2008 run for the presidency, but said that “has nothing to do with” his endorsement. Kane served as the northeast Pennsylvania volunteer coordinator for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential run.
Kane, who was endorsed by the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, was admittedly nervous prior to the rally.
“It’s unbelievably exciting, it’s nerve-racking,” she said. “I’ve given thousands of closing arguments but I’ve never spoken in front of the President of the United States, who is such a great orator.”
The Democratic-leaning Upper Moreland Township helped boost Kane’s rival, former congressman Patrick Murphy, to his spot in the U.S. Congress in 2006.
Bucks County Commissioner Diane Marseglia, who introduced Kane on Thursday, said the election is also about “breaking through the glass ceiling” to elect the first woman attorney general of Pennsylvania.
Murphy, an early supporter of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential run, has received the support of Obama senior advisor David Axelrod.
The Kane campaign is planning to use video and images from the rally for direct mail and TV ads in the closing days of the primary.
“I’m mostly here to see Bill Clinton, but anyone he endorses, I’ll support,” said Art Salazar of Upper Moreland, the first person in line at the event.
