BREAKING: Rafferty to Announce Campaign for Attorney General

john-raffertyThe 2016 race for Attorney General begins.

State Senator John Rafferty, as was expected, is set to officially jump into the race this week.

“I am excited to announce I will officially be launching my campaign for Pennsylvania Attorney General on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 in Harrisburg,” according to a letter obtained by PoliticsPA from Rafferty’s campaign to Republican state committee members.

Rafferty’s formal announcement is set to take place at the headquarters of the PA State Troopers Association.

“Together we are going to win big in 2015 to clean up our state’s courts and next year we will work to clean up the Attorney General’s office,” he concludes.

John Rafferty has served in the State Senate since 2003, representing the 44th district which comprises parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery Counties.

With Kathleen Kane mired in a myriad of troubles, the 2016 contest could be quite competitive. It is widely suspected that Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro will challenge Kane in a Democratic primary.

Additionally, earlier this week State Rep. Todd Stephens told PoliticsPA he is also considering a run in the GOP primary.

No matter what the final field of candidates looks like, this contest should be one of the most competitive of 2016.

16 Responses

  1. Illustrative of the fact that Rafferty isn’t “establishment” is the fact that, despite potential AG-candidacy four years ago, he was snubbed…by the “establishment.”

  2. Rafferty is the biggest “hack” party shill whatever you want to call it on the planet. Anyone who doesn’t know this is a complete moron.

  3. Not that I’m ready to make a judgment call on Rafferty one way or the other, but what could a tax on motorists possibly have to do with one’s qualifications to serve as AG and enforce the Commonwealth’s laws?

    And concerning the 2012 race, Freed fared worse off relative to Irey Vaughan and Maher for two reasons. The first was geography – Irey Vaughan and Maher got a hometown bump from Western PA that Freed did not. The second (and more important) was the opponent – by everyone’s account Kane ran a very effective campaign in that her TV ads promoting her political independence, taking a closer look at Penn State, etc. really resonated with the voters. Facing someone like DePasquale, Maher didn’t have to deal with as strong of an adversary.

    Lastly, the notion that John Q. Voter cares enough about state row office elections to withhold votes from certain Republican nominees who he finds not to be sufficiently conservative is RIDICULOUS. Guzzardi, you’re in the 1% when you talk about this degree of scrutiny. This isn’t the Presidency or the U.S. Senate we’re talking about.

  4. Well, if Bob Guzzardi has a problem with the candidate, that means the candidate will win in a landslide. Hey, Bob, your conception of a “conservative” is shared by about six people. So turn off the computer and let the adults share their thoughts.

  5. John Rafferty is chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and engineered the largest tax increase on private motorists and commercial truck drivers in Pennsylvania history and the highest tax increase since 1991. He is not fiscally responsible; he is not the forgotten taxpayer’s friend and he is not a conservative.

    I believe that Sen. Scott Wagner will oppose his nomination and I doubt he will receive much support among Republicans outside of the southeast because he is not a conservative and not much from southeast because he is known as part of Republican Establishment leadership and an opponent of key reforms.

    In the 2010 General Election, in the state wide races, DAVE FREED received 92,146 fewer votes than Diana Irey Vaughan and 235,261 fewer votes than John Maher in November 2012 election.The Republican base abandoned and was, certainly, unenthusiastic about Corbett and the Republican Establishment’s hand picked crony insider. I think the conservative base will be even less enthusiastic about John Rafferty.

    Are Todd Nyquist and Mike Long his campaign managers? That should tell any values voter all they need to know.

  6. He is a party hack. The GOP sent him out on the Judicial Court circuit to “push” the endorsed candidates. I heard he worships Anne Covey! Wait until he and the rest of the GOP sees what’s coming with regards to her!! Stay tuned….

  7. Funny that he would talk about cleaning up the courts when it was a republican justice convicted of a crime while in office.

  8. Mauve Avenger, Kane wasn’t even practicing law for seven years before she ran for AG, and she had never been a DA.

    Thesaurus, I disagree that Rafferty should have been the Republican candidate last time. He doesn’t have as much prosecutorial experience as Freed, and the anti-Corbett sentiment would have worked against Rafferty as much as it worked against Freed.

    Bottom line is anyone will be better than Kane.

  9. @Mauve Avenger, why would you take the time to comment on something on which you have no information and even less of a point. Sen. Rafferty was Deputy Pennsylvania Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1991 in the Criminal Law Division. To your lack of a point, if experience as a prosecutor is your benchmark for qualification to be AG, it sure doesn’t seem to have served Ms. Kane all that well. Pennsylvania would be lucky to have Senator Rafferty as Attorney General…he should have been the Republican candidate in 2012.

  10. Yet another Harrisburg partisan hack with no experience as a prosecutor. We would be better to keep Kane in for four more years. Is there not a District Attorney anywhere in PA that wants to step up and run?

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