From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Attorney General Tom Corbett has been in the news a lot lately. That’s mostly because of charges he announced two weeks ago against a dozen current and former House Democratic lawmakers and staffers.

But the saga over alleged misuse of taxpayer money, often called “Bonusgate,” isn’t the only battle that Mr. Corbett, a Shaler resident, is waging: He also faces a tough re-election battle this November.

His Democratic challenger, John Morganelli, a pro-gun, pro-life district attorney from Northampton County in Eastern Pennsylvania, is hoping that anti-Republican sentiment, both nationally and in many parts of this state, coupled with his criticism of Mr. Corbett, will propel him to victory.

“Bonusgate has been completely mishandled,” claimed Mr. Morganelli. He added that Mr. Corbett is indebted to corporations and misuses taxpayer money.

Mr. Corbett’s campaign, for its part, charges that Mr. Morganelli stretches facts and runs an overly negative campaign.

No polling data exists to measure the race so far, but experts think it could be close. The number of registered Democrats in the state hit a record in April, and Democrats now outnumber Republicans by about 830,000.

And if the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama does well in Pennsylvania, as many expect, it likely would help Mr. Morganelli.

“With Republican voters not nearly as enthusiastic or excited, this is an election cycle in which, all things being even, the Democrats are likely to win,” said G. Terry Madonna, a public affairs professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

But since the attorney general became an elected position in 1980, no Democrat has ever won. And support for Mr. Corbett is running high in light of the charges against House Democrats.

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