Some GOP lawmakers also hesitant over Pa. lottery privatization

    Reaction has been swift to Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s rejection of the Corbett administration’s lottery privatization deal.Democrats, who have vociferously opposed the lottery contract, have been unsurprisingly glowing in their reviews of Democrat Kane’s decision to halt a contract to put the Pennsylvania Lottery operations in the care of a British firm.

    But there have been plenty of critics of this plan on the Republican side of the aisle, as well. Cumberland County Sen. Pat Vance is among them.

    She isn’t making predictions about how the lottery deal will end up — but she is noting how quickly the results of last November’s election are disrupting the governor’s agenda.

    “It’s a different game in town, now. All three row offices are held by the Democrats and so I think there’ll be a lot of scrutiny — and scrutiny’s never bad, overall,” Vance said.

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    The other two Democratic-held row offices — auditor general and treasurer — praised Kane for rejecting the contract.

    But responses weren’t all reliably partisan.

    House and Senate Republican leaders were muted in their statements responding to the decision.

    Both sets of GOP leaders indicated their preference that changes to the Pennsylvania Lottery happen by the same hands that created it — those of the Legislature.

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