Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kathleen Kane, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania attorney general, said Thursday her independence from party politics makes her the better choice for voters and suggested that technology could be put to better use in fighting certain types of crime.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Kane also revealed that she's "a good shot" even though she does not own a gun and said she supports pending legislation that would ease restrictions on wiretapping.
"The people of Pennsylvania want an independent prosecutor," she said. "They don't want a politician. They don't want a bureaucrat."
Kane said her successful primary campaign, which was financed largely by her husband and which transformed her from political newcomer to the first woman to be nominated for Pennsylvania attorney general by a major party, reflected her political independence.
She said her victory over ex-U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy enabled her to be taken seriously by political contributors on whom she's counting to provide millions of dollars for a general-election campaign that could make her the first female and the first Democrat to be elected as the state's chief law enforcement officer since it became an elective office in 1980.
"They're really standing behind me, and I'm encouraged and excited by it," she said.
The 46-year-old former Lackawanna County prosecutor called her Republican foe in the Nov. 6 election, Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed, "a nice guy" whom she's known for a decade.
Kane said she believes all the law enforcement activities of the attorney general's office are important. She declined to identify ones that she might cut in order to expand other programs while staying within the current $78 million state appropriation.
She said the office could become more proactive about crime prevention through the use of relatively inexpensive high-tech tools that other states use to combat Internet sex predators and prescription drug abuse.
"We need to keep up more with the technology," she said.
Kane said she would demand an investigation, "whether it be (by) my staff or someone else's staff," to determine why the attorney general's office did not charge former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky with child abuse until late last year, three years after it launched its investigation.
Sandusky was convicted last month of 45 counts of child sexual abuse stemming from the abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period in a case that rocked Penn State and resulted in the firing of long-time coach Joe Paterno. The attorney general's office has defended the pace of the Sandusky investigation as a reflection of prosecutors' methodical approach.
"The public needs to trust their law enforcement," said Kane, who once specialized in prosecuting such cases.
On the subject of guns, Kane was asked whether she owned one.
"I have two little boys, so absolutely not," she said.
Then she added that she received training in the handling and operation of guns as a county prosecutor. She allowed that she likes to go target shooting and said she has fired .45-caliber, .22-caliber and 9mm handguns.
"And I am a good shot, I will say," she said. "The first time I shot a gun was at the state police range out in Harrisburg, and I would have qualified for the FBI."
Kane said she favors the pending bill to overhaul Pennsylvania's wiretapping law for the first time in 14 years. A version passed by the House earlier this year would allow, among other things, conversations to be recorded anywhere so long as a notice about the possibility of being recorded is posted.
Kane noted that video recordings are ubiquitous nowadays and suggested that the laws regulating audio recordings need to be updated.
She rejected the notion that a newly elected Democratic attorney general might be inclined to replace many of the 179 lawyers on the attorney general's staff after more than three decades of solidly Republican leadership.
"Your main focus is making sure that you have people who are trained and people who believe in your mission on law enforcement," she said. "That's all that I care about."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kane-Independence-makes-me-better-Pa-AG-choice-3738248.php