Upon graduation and admission to the bar, Casey worked for the Washington, D.C., law firm Covington & Burling, where he remained until returning to Scranton in 1958 to enter solo practice.

Considered a moderate and despite growing frustration with Democratic Party policies, Casey rejected Republican offers to run for governor on their ticket on two occasions.

Paul Beers in his 1980 book "Pennsylvania Politics Today and Yesterday: The Tolerable Accommodation", wrote that Casey was "regarded as the finest auditor general the Commonwealth ever had.

"[10] During his term as Auditor General, Casey was noted for feuding with then-Governor Shapp over Pennsylvania's pension system and exposing corruption.

[11] Beers notes that during his two terms, "Contracts for day care, Medicare, the Farm Show, highways, [Milton] Shapp's pet dream of a Pocono Arts Center, and property leases were all investigated and audited thoroughly by Casey, with accompanying headlines when he uncovered mistakes or petty corruptions.

[12] In 1978, another candidate named Robert P. Casey, this one a teacher and ice cream parlor owner from Monroeville, Pennsylvania, received the Democratic party's nomination for lieutenant governor, again with a no-spending, no-campaigning strategy.

[12] This Casey, who joined Democratic gubernatorial nominee Pete Flaherty, narrowly lost to Richard Thornburgh and William Scranton III.

Dubbed "the three-time loss from Holy Cross" by detractors, Casey hired two then generally unknown political strategists, James Carville and Paul Begala, to lead his campaign staff.

The race was considered too close to call until three weeks before the election, when a poster appeared statewide, depicting Scranton as a "dope smoking hippie".

[13] On the Saturday before election day, however, Carville launched the now infamous "guru ad", a TV advert which attacked Scranton's practice of transcendental meditation.

Budd Dwyer, the state treasurer who had been convicted on charges of accepting kickbacks, committed suicide at a televised press conference just two days into his term.

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania sued, with Casey as the named defendant, asserting that the law violated Roe v. Wade.

[3] Considering abortion a key social issue for the 1992 presidential election, Casey tried to get a speaking slot to give a minority plank on the topic at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

On November 29, 1990, Governor Casey signed a bill that eliminated the electric chair as a method of executions in Pennsylvania and replaced it by lethal injection.

After briefly considering appointing Chrysler Corporation Chairman Lee Iacocca, an Allentown native, Casey settled on state Secretary of Labor and Industry, and former Kennedy functionary Harris Wofford (despite private fears that he was too liberal for rural Pennsylvania voters).

Thanks in large part to Casey's fundraising prowess and Carville's political ability, Senator Wofford scored an upset victory over Thornburgh.

By 2005, the Governor's son, Bob Casey Jr., had served two terms as auditor general and had been elected state treasurer the year before, crushing his opponent with over 3.3 million votes.

Despite the younger Casey's anti-abortion views, National Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, heavily recruited him to run in the 2006 election against Santorum, by now the number-three Republican in the Senate.

He contemplated a run for president to oppose Bill Clinton in the 1996 Democratic primaries, even going as far as to file paper needed to raise money for a presidential campaign in March 1995.

[8] Despite the transplants, Casey continued to suffer long-term effects of his disease and died of a viral infection[7] on May 30, 2000, at age 68 in Mercy Hospital in Scranton.