Democrats have a dustup race to succeed Kane

Three Democrats and two Republicans claim they have the right skills and experience to clean up the high-profile, dysfunctional mess that is the office of Pennsylvania attorney general.

The current attorney general, Democrat Kathleen G. Kane, is not seeking a second term as she prepares for a criminal trial in August, accused of leaking secret grand-jury materials and lying to a grand jury about it.

The Democrats, who appear to have the more competitive race on Tuesday's primary ballot, have stepped carefully around Kane's legal woes while casting them as the reason to elect them to the office, where they would oversee 763 employees and an annual budget of more than $95 million.

Josh Shapiro, chairman of Montgomery County's commissioners and a former state legislator, said Kane's lack of "executive experience" and "political sophistication" caused her to make mistakes.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, who has run for attorney general three times and has spent much of his latest try criticizing Shapiro, agreed that Kane's limited experience as a boss had hurt her.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr., who testified as an expert witness to the grand jury that recommended charges against Kane, touts his experience overseeing grand juries for nearly two decades.

Experience and ambition are at the heart of the Democratic primary, since the candidates show little disagreement on issues.

Beyond "chippy" political attacks, said Christopher Borick, a political scientist at Muhlenberg College, experience may be the biggest difference among the candidates.

"Is the state interested in turning to experienced prosecutors," Borick said, "or are [voters] looking more at individuals that might bring broader experience to the office?"

Shapiro, with a welter of big-name endorsements - President Obama, Gov. Wolf, U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. - is helped by strong name recognition in Southeastern Pennsylvania's media market. His rivals have hit on his lack of prosecutorial experience.

"He's got the biggest target on his back," Borick said of Shapiro, because of his endorsements and the fact that he's from the populous southeast.

Zappala, district attorney since 1998, holds a similar advantage in Western Pennsylvania. His name, too, is well-known - his father, Stephen Sr., is a retired state Supreme Court chief justice.

Zappala, who has not faced a primary or general-election challenger in Allegheny County in 16 years, is also backed by Philadelphia Democrats such as Mayor Kenney, the city committee, and Lt. Gov. Mike Stack III.

Morganelli, who boasts of being the state's current longest-serving district attorney, with 24 years on the job, said he is the only Democrat in the race who has prosecuted criminal cases in court.

Shapiro has accused Morganelli of running a "kamikaze campaign" meant to help Zappala. Morganelli and Zappala deny any such scheme. Morganelli has focused his criticism on Shapiro's having accepted campaign donations from political action committees of firms that received Montgomery County contracts.

Shapiro has hit back by saying Morganelli can cite that information because of transparency policies that Shapiro, as chairman of the commissioners, helped institute.

The other knock on Shapiro has been that he is already looking for higher office and might run for governor someday.

Zappala and Morganelli each used the term stepping-stone, saying that's why some candidates seek to be attorney general.

Shapiro responded that he has been recruited to run for the House and Senate, but declined because he sees attorney general as a job in which he can "actually decide something in the morning and get it done by afternoon."

"I have no plans or interests in running for anything else," he said. "This is the job I want."

Campaign finance reports filed Friday showed Shapiro with $1 million on hand; Morganelli, $367,170; and Zappala, $117,788.

The GOP primary has been a less-contentious two-way contest between State Sen. John Rafferty, who has state party backing, and Joe Peters, a former prosecutor who was a top aide to Kane.

Rafferty, of Montgomery County, was the first candidate in either party to enter the race last summer, citing a "black cloud" over Kane's office in his announcement speech.

Now in his fourth Senate term, Rafferty has worked as a private lawyer and was a deputy attorney general from 1988 to 1991, prosecuting Medicaid fraud.

He ran briefly for attorney general in 2012, but dropped out after then-Gov. Tom Corbett backed Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed, who lost to Kane.

Peters is running on his record as a longtime prosecutor who has never held political office. He has pressed on despite losing the party's endorsement, saying his 17 years in the Attorney General's Office make him most qualified.

Peters, of Wyoming County, last worked in that office under Kane, in an advisory and communications role, for less than a year. He quit in 2014.

"The final judgments are left for the criminal court," he said of Kane. "I left when I thought it was appropriate, and there's really not much else to say on that issue."

As for Kane's effect on the race, Borick said her tumultuous time in the post, which comes with a $158,700 salary, has caused all candidates to talk of restoring integrity.

"It's hard to discern if her very rocky years in office advantage any particular candidate's message," he said, "especially when they're all trumpeting how different they are from what has transpired during her tenure."

brennac@phillynews.com

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@ByChrisBrennan