By Keegan Gibson, Managing Editor
Kathleen Kane may not have Patrick Murphy’s statewide name ID, but she’s betting that she can catch up. Her family has wagered $2.25 million on it so far.
Kane’s husband helps to run his family’s business, Kane Trucking in Scranton. He loaned $1.75 million to his wife’s campaign, reports PhillyClout, and contributed $500,000. The former Lackawanna County assistant District Attorney currently has $2,009,911 on hand.
Murphy, meanwhile, did it the old fashioned way. He raised around $1.4 million in 2011 and begins 2012 with $1,043,016 on hand. He boasts over 2,500 individual donors.
And Murphy, a former Congressman from Bucks County, has an early lead in name ID among likely Democratic voters. It’s partly why, when his campaign released the results of an internal poll, he enjoyed a double-digit lead.
A source on the Kane campaign passed along Wednesday morning the results of an internal poll from their camp. The numbers corroborate Murphy’s name ID, but team Kane says it also shows a viable path to victory – for a candidate with a significant edge in cash on hand.
The initial results of the poll show that 45 percent of likely Dem primary voters know Murphy, whereas only 19 percent know Kane. 47 percent of voters don’t know either.
On the first ask, Murphy enjoys a 40 to 24 lead. After respondents hear only positive information about each candidate, the numbers flip, and Kane takes a 51 to 35 lead. According to the Kane campaign source, the two were tied among voters familiar with both.
They’re confident that they will have sufficient financial resources to tell Kane’s story.
This is an internal campaign poll, and as such should be taken with a grain of salt. It is standard practice for campaigns to release partial data. Polls are typically released for one of two reasons: 1. to boost fundraising (likely not an issue here); and 2. to show that a candidate is serious).
The poll was taken before Dan McCaffery dropped out of the race (though the head-to-head questions were asked as such – they didn’t simply remove McCaffery’s numbers). It pre-dates headlines about Murphy and the Pa. Bar.
The pollster is Pete Brodnitz of the Benson Strategy Group.
Update: Nat Binns, spokesman for Murphy, responded:
“This poll confirms what we already knew, which is that Patrick Murphy holds a commanding lead in this race and that Kathleen Kane is unknown in Pennsylvania. We appreciate the Kane campaign acknowledging just how tough this race will be for them. It’s also pretty telling that they needed to dust off a months old poll to avoid talking about how she and her company are trying to buy the Attorney General’s office.”
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24 Responses
Kane was a delegate for Hillary at the Democratic convention in ’08. That’s where I met her for the first time. She is very impressive when you meet her in person. I spoke to her again at state committee a few weeks ago and was impressed with her debate performance. Murphy is a great guy but I don’t think he is the best candidate. He can’t get through a general election and I think he would be better running against Fitzpatrick again. Kane is clearly the most qualified for AG and has the best chance against the Republican in the fall.
Patrick Murphy was Pelosi’s lapdog. In 2010, the voters in the 8th CG handily booted him from office with a crappy GOP candidate like Mike Fitzpatrick. Murphy can’t get re-elected in a purple district like the 8th and you think he can win AG. Good luck with that. The PA GOP may be worthless but Murphy is ten times worse.
Both Patrick Murphy & Kathleen Kane appear on-paper to have excellent credentials for the AG job and at first it seemed as if this was going to be a tough choice for me. That was until I found out that Kathleen Kane had supported John McCain in 2008…DEMOCRATS LIKE THAT MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACH!!!
So if Kane wins the primary and is on the general election ticket with President Obama will she then endorse Mitt or Newt in 2012? Its a fair question considering that she supported McCain in the past.
If it weren’t for these Blue-Dogs (who in reality are in the closet Republicans/tea-baggers) then Democrats would maintain control of every statewide seat in PA. But these idiot Blue-Dogs who reside in the redneck parts of the state continue to undermine PA’s Democratic Party with their foolishly conservative (errrrr…racist) values.
As a Democrat I intend to support the most progessive candidate who is proud of being a liberal. Therefore if you’re a Democrat who is pro-life, anti-gun control, hates all things related to government spending, and consider yourself to be a “moderate” then please do us “REAL DEMOCRATS” a favor and go join the Republican Party or be a Libertarian. And if you’re a Democratic Candidate like Kathleen Kane and you’ve been known to support Republicans (like she supported John McCain in 2008) then I hope you pay for your ignorance and never get elected as a Democrat.
I support Patrick Murphy 100% because unlike Kathleen Kane at least I know that Murphy won’t support a Republican Presidential nominee.
Kathleen Kane = The Joe Lieberman of PA = A Traitor to the Democratic Party
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2065139/posts
Does Kane really look like she appears in that photo?
the_new_liberal_lion-
Republican? What are you talking about? Kane’s a Democrat for AG. Murphy’s blue-dog Dem (which makes him pretty Republican in my book).
As for McCord, he’d be great candidate. He knows how to run (and win) statewide, has decent name recognition, and can raise money. (We can’t risk another fiasco with Sestak). Rob understands the state’s financial situation and I don’t think he’d be closing down schools.
Penn Stater – Are you against having an AG with a track record of going after child abusers? Oh, you’re from Penn State, where abusers are protected better than the spotted owl.
When have I been on Kane’s payroll? (seemingly or otherwise) I met her briefly at one or two events, and she comes off much more genuine that Murphy (who I met years ago and found to be disappointing and in over his head). I like that Murphy stood up for ending DADT, but he seemed more a poster-boy that the establishment put in front because he had served recently, rather than because Murphy was some great statesman.
Bill- What “blood money”?
JDF- Murphy couldn’t even hold onto his congressional seat, and now he thinks he can win statewide? Sounds like he’s expecting coat-tails from presidential election turning out a lot of Dems. I actually consider his military law experience to be a drawback for dealing with civilian cases and civilian rules.
Murphy would make a nice assistant for Kane, but nothing about him fills me with confidence in his ability to be the AG of PA.
I think he is a good candidate for southeast. I do like your write up, but to suppose he is more legally qualified is a QUITE a stretch. He did a good job in congress. The GOP will be scouring his votes for sure
Right, because working in the Philly DA’s office, the Harrisburg Civic Law Center and, oh yeah, four years in JAG corps are not qualifications for this job at all?
Patrick Murphy is a proven investigator, proven litigator, and proven leader.
He has been shown this everywhere he has been, from Philadelphia, to the Baghdad, to the halls of Congress.
He isn’t just the right choice, he is the only choice.
How much of the loan went for the makeup and lighting for her picture? The consultants will have a field day with this one. Candidates, get ready to peel off those greenbacks.
Deflecting attention to distract from the real issue here…. one candidate (Kane) is more qualified than The other (Murphy) is more known and in my opinion the second best choice when looking at their records. I have to agree with David Diano… the most qualified is the way to go.
The GOP will be licking their chops to run ads on Murphy in the general.
Wait, what? Is Kane Trucking not union? Are you sure? Because I know she said she was pro-labor at her forum?
Bill, you are right, Kane will not motivate democrats. More importantly, she has an immedidate conflict of interest if elected. Kane Trucking has millions of dollars of business trucking for the PA Liquor Control Board. Maybe the Republicans put her in the race on purpose. That would justify the anmount of self-funding.
So Kane paid her campaign $2.25 million out her family’s blood money and only has $2.0 million on hand. When you factor in that somebody other than her husband must have contributed to the campaign, what has she done with the $250K+? I hear nothing about her on the campaign trail????
Do the Democrats really want an AG candidate in the General Election that is entirely funded by a non-union out-of-state trucking company? That ought to play well to the base and really bring them out at the General Election. Unfortunately for the Democrats, it might bring more Ds out to vote R.
I voted for Tom Corbett for AG in 2008, but Dan Onorato for Governor in 2010. I was pretty disgusted by the BonusGate prosecutions. And to know that he had like thirty investigators on those political prosecutions while a monster like Sandusky was on the loose infuriates me.
We don’t just need a prosecutor, we need a courageous counterbalance to Corbett. Murphy did a hell of a job fighting against Bush in Congress. We’ll see what happens this time around..
We hear the voices of the Democratic Hack Establishment. Kathleen Kane does seem to have experience to be AG; more importantly Kathleen Kane is INDEPENDENT OF THE PARTY LEADERSHIP and that is a good thing to be whichever party you are in. It is very impressive when a person is willing to use her own money to run for public office. I am sure she has other uses for a million dollars than running for public office to be insulted by party hacks, anonymously.
PATRICK MURPHY will be able to raise all the money he needs by calling all the people to whom he awarded taxpayer financed Earmarks. Did he prosecute terrorists in Baghdad? And how is that experience for prosecuting fraud?
And @Pennstater, I get that you are a Steelers fan, but can you really hate Tebow?
I am just not sold on Kane.
So far, I’ve seen that she is way better than Patrick Murphy at pouring obscene amounts of money into her campaign coffers.
As far as experience goes, I would rather have an Attorney General who prosecuted terrorists in Baghdad than one who did DUI’s in Carbondale.
I’d rather have a Democratic nominee who endorsed Barack Obama before it was popular than one who was a “Democrat for McCain.”
I’d rather have a candidate who has a proven track record of electoral victories than a political neophyte who seems to hate campaigning more than the Pirates hate signing quality relief pitching.
Democrats need to win this office, and I genuinely believe that Murphy is the guy to do it.
STEELBLITZ… the other regular in Kane’s pocket.
So every small town assistant district attorney with 12 years experience who can self-finance has stuff to be in charge of consumer protection? What about preventing medicare fraud? The real meat and potatoes of the AG’s job.
Also, her qualifications for the job won’t mean a thing when she loses in the general. If this campaign was based solely on experience, how could an assistant DA compete with a lifelong DA like Freed?
All of that being said Steelblitz, I like the nickname, hate Tim Tebow and am looking forward to next season.
“Real deal”…. Sounds like another reference to Kanes significant edge in experience again.
Well, not only has Diano been pumping McCord for Governor, he has seemingly been on the Kane payroll (which is clearly pretty extensive) for some time now.
Money is a huge help, but you also need to look at how these candidates campaign..
Kane looks miserable on the trail, and struggles to connect with voters. Murphy is extremely hardworking, and has the charisma to boot.
He has proven himself to be the real deal. The jury is still out on Kane.
David, you have no business pumping up a republican for AG, since you are pumping up Rob McCord for governor.
Yes, it would make sense if someone got the job based on qualification as opposed to high schoolpopularity w the establishment.
For a managerial position… Do you hire the veteran or the guy with only a couple years experience (most of which entails tasks that the AG doesn’t handle).
Talking points only take you so far.
It would be nice if the election gets decided on who has more (and more relevant) qualification (ie Kane) than name recognition (Murphy).
Bob, please take your Prosac and stay in your rubber room. A criminal picked the Attorney General and made him governor. What do you expect?
Considering Dave Freed’s highly compromised candidacy, as I have posted elsewhere on this site, I have to think about voting Democrat for AG.
Patrick Murphy is from Bucks County and, as a supporter of Mike Fitzpatrick, I have come to know about Patrick Murphy and am less than impressed. Patrick Murphy is entwined with Democratic Leadership which is as corrosive as Republican Leadership.
Kathleen Kane appears to be INDEPENDENT OF PARTY LEADERSHIP and given the less than aggressive investigation by Tom Corbett’s Attorney General’s Office of the March 2002 rape of a ten year old and serial child molestations.
The Democrats have noticed what others have noticed: Tom Corbett may be trying to pick the investigator who will investigate the Sandusky investigation.
We can only wonder if there was any investigation of Senate Bonusgate babies Drew Crompton and Mike Long.
Should I remind everyone that the Republican Attorney General candidate’s political and financial backer is under investigation for misuse of Hershey Trust funds that were to be used for disadvantaged kids.
Molesting children and getting rich from disadvantaged kids were not Republican Values. We could remind them of Democratic Luzerne County’s Kids for Cash scandal. I had thought only Democrats did these things. I was misinformed.
It is time we considered a Democratic AG.