Republican John Rafferty to announce bid for PA Attorney General
State Sen. John Rafferty, R-44th Dist., plans to announce Wednesday he will seek the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania Attorney General.
The announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Pennsylvania State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, located at 2949 North Front Street, Harrisburg, PA.
Rafferty is serving his third four-year term in the state Senate representing the 44th District, which stretches across Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties.
If he wins the race for attorney general next year, a special election will be held to complete the rest of Rafferty's state Senate term, which runs to the end of 2014.
Rafferty serves as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and is a member of Appropriations, Banking and Insurance, Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, and Judiciary committees.
Before running for the Senate in 2002, Rafferty was an attorney in private practice, focusing on education, real estate, zoning and business and estates law.
Before that, he served as Deputy Attorney General for Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1991, where he he was responsible for the Criminal Law Division and Grand Jury Investigations.
Rafferty is the first Republican in the race, joining three announced Democrats: Kathleen Kane of Lackawanna County, former Congressman Patrick Murphy of Bucks County and Dan McCafferty of Montgomery County.
Since the attorney general's office became an elected position in 1980, no Democrat has won the office.
The current attorney general is Republican Linda Kelly, who was nominated by Gov. Tom Corbett to complete the final two years of his term after Corbett was elected governor in 2010. Honoring a "gentleman's agreement" in the state Senate, which had to confirm Kelly's appointment, she agreed not to seek a full term as attorney general.
Tony Phyrillas is a leading conservative political columnist and blogger based in Pennsylvania. He is a veteran journalist with 25 years experience as a reporter, editor and columnist for several newspapers. Phyrillas received recognition for column writing in 2010 from the Associated Press Managing Editors, in 2007 from Suburban Newspapers of America and in 2006 from the Society of Professional Journalists, Keystone Chapter. A graduate of Penn State University, Phyrillas is the city editor and political columnist for The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa. In addition to The Mercury website (www.pottsmerc.com), his columns are featured on more than a dozen political websites and blogs. Phyrillas is a frequent guest (and occasional host) on talk radio and has been a panelist on the "Journalists Roundtable" public affairs TV program on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN). Phyrillas was named one of the '10 Leading Greek-American Bloggers in the World' in 2007 by Odyssey: The World of Greece magazine. BlogNetNews.com ranked Phyrillas the Most Influential Political Blogger in Pennsylvania for three consecutive years (2007-2010). You can follow Phyrillas on Twitter @TonyPhyrillas
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