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Friday, March 29, 2024

Corbett projected winner in Pa. gov race

Corbett

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - Tom Corbett will apparently be moving from Pennsylvania's Attorney General's Office.

Corbett, a Republican, was projected to become the state's next governor Tuesday, besting Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato by several media outlets as he held 52.3 percent of the vote with 69 percent of precincts reporting. He had a lead of 116,000 votes.

Corbett had won re-election as attorney general in 2008, but the state will now have to find another AG. He's replacing Democrat Ed Rendell, who took office in 2003, and will take control of litigation undertook by Rendell and the private firm Bailey Perrin Bailey.

The firm had approached Corbett with a plan to sue three drug manufacturers over the alleged side effects and marketing of prescription antipsychotics. Corbett refused the offer, citing a lack of evidence, but Rendell, who had received $75,000 in direct contributions and $16,000 in airfare from the firm, filed suit on behalf of his office.

One of the defendants, Eli Lilly & Co., has already settled with most of the states that filed similar suits against it. However, it has not settled with Pennsylvania and may have been awaiting the outcome of Tuesday's election.

Read more about the lawsuits here.

Polls had shown Corbett with a comfortable lead over Onorato, who emerged from a field of four candidates in May's Democratic primary.

From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.

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