HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell is barred by law from seeking a third term, but that didn't dissuade him Wednesday from challenging some of his would-be successors' claims.

The Democrat's main target was state Attorney General Tom Corbett, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in Tuesday's primary, whom he accused of hypocrisy in campaign ads that promise to shrink the state's motor-vehicle fleet and cut state spending.

Rendell asserted that the 900-employee attorney general's department maintains 500 passenger vehicles — about one for every two department employees — while there are fewer than 5,000 such vehicles and 76,000 employees — a one-to-15 ratio — in the executive branch agencies under the governor's control.

"The attorney general is advocating that we do as he says, not as he does," Rendell said at a news conference.

Not so, said Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley.

About three-fourths of the attorney general's vehicles are assigned to agents under a labor contract negotiated by the Rendell administration, Harley said. Most of the rest are vehicles seized in drug raids that remain on the public inventory until they can be auctioned off, and a small number are assigned to drug agents, criminal prosecutors and senior attorneys whose jobs require extensive travel, he said.

Rendell also criticized Corbett and Democratic candidate Jack Wagner, the state auditor general, for promising to cut state spending while they are seeking increases in their agencies' budgets for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Harley said most of the $6 million proposed increase in the attorney general's budget would be funneled to counties to help pay the salaries of full-time district attorneys, and the rest is for salary increases required under a state contract.

"All we are is a passthrough agency" for the district attorney subsidies, Harley said.

Wagner's campaign said the auditor general's budget has actually decreased slightly since Wagner took office in 2005.

Wagner, one of four Democratic candidates for governor, recently aired a TV ad in the Pittsburgh market that was a thinly veiled attack on the fast-food-loving governor from Philadelphia. He compared the state budget to a famous sandwich in Rendell's home city.

"There's too much grease in that Philly cheesesteak," Wagner says in the ad. "This state needs a healthier diet."

The candidates entered the final days of the campaign with widely varying financial situations.

Corbett, who is opposed by state Rep. Sam Rohrer in the GOP primary, had $3.8 million on hand on May 3, the closeout date of the last preprimary campaign finance reports.

Dan Onorato, the Allgheny County executive who polls show as the Democratic front-runner, had more than $1 million in the bank.

Both have continued to raise money aggressively since then.

Onorato had raised nearly $200,000 and Corbett had pulled in more than $180,000 through those contributions, which must be individually reported to the state elections bureau within 24 hours.

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams of Philadelphia reported a $515,000 contribution from a political action committee financed by the founding partners of Susquehanna International Group, a Bala Cynwyd-based international trading firm, and other wealthy donors who support "school choice" — vouchers, charter schools and other taxpayer-financed alternatives to public schools.

Wagner, who had more than $200,000 on hand on May 3, reported at least $60,000 in subsequent contributions.

Joe Hoeffel, a Montgomery County commissioner and former congressman, had added less than $17,000 to his $46,000 balance, but he hoped to continue running TV ads in southeastern Pennsylvania.