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D.A. mum about seeking A.G. job

District Attorney Lynne Abraham yesterday declined to dispel buzz in political circles that she'll resign her post early next year to run for state attorney general.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham yesterday declined to dispel buzz in political circles that she'll resign her post early next year to run for state attorney general.

"The D.A. said she has made no final decisions about her career plans," spokeswoman Cathie Abookire said yesterday when asked whether Abraham would complete her term, which runs through 2009.

Abraham has said this would be her last term in the job.

If she were to take the plunge, Abraham, who is 66 and whose husband is 90, would be jumping into a grueling statewide race against an established incumbent, Republican Tom Corbett.

"The conventional wisdom is that Corbett would be hard to beat," said Franklin & Marshall analyst and pollster Terry Madonna. "He did well in the Philadelphia suburbs, he owns the western part of the state, and he's gotten good press fighting corruption and cybercrime.

"But Abraham would be formidable," Madonna said. "She isn't known statewide, but she's popular in the Philadelphia media market, which runs from the Lehigh Valley through Delaware County. If she could win a huge percentage there and hold Pittsburgh, she has a chance."

Other Democrats said to be interested are Philadelphia attorneys James Eisenhower, who lost narrowly to Corbett in 2004; Christopher Casey, younger brother of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, and Northampton County D.A. John Morganelli.

If Abraham were to resign, her post would be filled the same way she got it in 1991, in a vote among the city's Common Pleas judges.

Rumors of Abraham's potential resignation popped into public view yesterday on Philadelphia Magazine's blog, the Daily Examiner. *