Pennsylvania Attorney General Candidates, Rafferty and Shapiro, Raise Nearly $3 Million Combined

If you don't yet know Pennsylvania's two candidates for attorney general, John Rafferty and Josh Shapiro, you soon will.

The two raised a combined nearly $3 million since the primary in May in the race to succeed disgraced former Attorney General Kathleen Kane, according to campaign finance records filed with the state Tuesday.

Of that total, Shapiro raised $1.8 million, which his campaign described as the most ever for an attorney general candidate during the period between the primary and the sixth Tuesday before the general election.

"We're confident going into the final stretch that we'll have the resources to beat our opponent's desperate attacks and the outside special interest groups looking to prop up his campaign," Shapiro campaign manager Joe Radosevich said Tuesday afternoon.

In raising almost $1.1 million, Rafferty's campaign said it showed that the Republican candidate gained momentum over the summer and has more than enough money on hand to hit the airwaves with advertising leading up to the Nov. 8 election.

"We feel very confident. We're on the air. We have a lot of events scheduled. Sen. Rafferty is raising money every night," campaign spokesman Michael Barley said.

He said some of the campaign's focus in the weeks ahead will be on Rafferty's experience as a former deputy attorney general and Shapiro's connection as a Democrat to Kane, who was convicted last month of perjury and other crimes in connection to a grand jury investigation. She resigned the office Aug. 17, two days after her conviction.

Both Rafferty and Shapiro are lawyers and have deep roots in Montgomery County. Rafferty, 63, of Lower Providence, is a four-term state senator representing the 44th district, which is made up of Montgomery, Berks, and Chester counties. Shapiro, 43, of Abington, is chairman of the Montgomery County board of commissioners, the first Democrat to hold that position in 150 years. He previously served four terms in the state House of Representatives.

By comparison, Democrat Kane and her Republican opponent David Freed in 2012 raised a combined $2.34 million during the same campaign filing period, according to finance records.

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