Editorial: Kathleen Kane is wasting our time

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane doesn’t seem to value her constituents’ time.

During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Kane, who is currently facing criminal charges, announced she would not seek the Democratic nomination for re-election. The announcement arrived on the same day that candidates had to officially submit their nomination petitions before the state primary in April. If Kane wanted to launch a bid, as she had previously alluded, this would have been her last opportunity to earn a spot on the ballot.

Productively, Kane’s announcement ends the speculation over whether she’ll seek re-election and directs attention to the real candidates — but it stopped short of doing what is best for Pennsylvania.

It’s time that Kane finally resign.

Kane is facing a potential seven-year prison sentence for allegedly leaking grand jury information and lying about it under oath. In September, the state Supreme Court ruled to suspend her legal license, which went into effect the following month. Kane has argued that since most of her job involves administrative — not legal — work, she remains fully capable of fulfilling her duties. The problem is that Kane continues to act as though there are no real questions surrounding her competency. Tuesday made it perfectly clear why these concerns persist.

Her speech consisted largely of listing her accomplishments and leaned on her duties as a single mother to justify her disinterest in running for re-election. If Tuesday’s speech was supposed to demonstrate that Kane means to handle her situation professionally and focus on making the final 11 months of her term meaningful, it failed.

At no point during her speech did Kane address the allegations that could land her in prison. To act like the public — especially anyone willing to sit through a short-notice, afternoon briefing — isn’t aware of the criminal charges she faces is insulting.

Expecting her to admit wrongdoing on television before her case concludes is unreasonable. But it is not at all unreasonable to expect an elected official to publicly recognize that the true obstacle blocking re-election could be prison bars.

In the court of public opinion, it seemed Kane was doing fairly well — a Harpers poll placed her above her would-be primary opponents with 31 percent of the vote late last month. Maintaining her innocence, as she has vocally and consistently done, would be a strong sign that she is removing herself from the picture for the betterment of Pennsylvania’s future. Brushing the issue aside as unworthy of mention shows she is more interested in saving public face.

Notably, all of the accomplishments she listed  occurred prior to the allegations. Even if Kane is innocent, there is no way that criminal charges — and the harsh, public criticism accompanying them — would not affect her ability to perform.

Gov. Tom Wolf — a fellow Democrat — has recommended that she resign, and last Wednesday, a majority of the state Senate voted in favor of her removal but then fell short of the necessary supermajority. The same day, the House voted 172-12 to begin a possible impeachment investigation, which could take months — only further delaying the return of relative normalcy.

This type of attention would deeply affect any normal person. Admitting that the pressure has affected her would not make Kane weak — it would make her human. But she has refused, and our state is wasting resources trying to push her out while her replacement could focus on leading Pennsylvania’s law enforcement.

If she deems herself unfit to run for re-election, she is unfit to maintain the position it would provide her.

Toward the end of her speech Tuesday, Kane highlighted the biggest problems Pennsylvanians face — namely, economic and social inequality. “I get it,” she insisted.

If she truly “got” all of Pennsylvania’s problems, though, we’d have seen the last of Kane months ago.