Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and Treasurer Rob McCord, who was reelected to a second term, took the oath in separate ceremonies.
Kane, 47, flanked by her husband and two young sons, vowed to fight corruption and protect communities from violent crime, children from predators, and seniors from scam artists.
She touched on stories of mothers, one of whom stood with her, who had lost young children to violent crime, and gave a shout-out to a Philadelphia antiviolence group, Mothers in Charge.
"To them I say, 'We're coming to help,' " she said. "And to those who commit violence ... against the elderly and children, my message to you is, 'We are coming.' "
Kane claimed a place in the history books Nov. 6 when she beat Republican David Freed by 14 percentage points and garnered 3.1 million votes statewide, more than anyone else on the ballot, including President Obama.
"That sent a message to the boys in Harrisburg," said McCaffery, a Montgomery County lawyer who briefly challenged Kane ahead of last spring's Democratic primary for attorney general.
Sitting front and center at the ceremony was Corbett, whom Kane had all but campaigned against, promising she would launch a review of his handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse investigation when the governor was in his previous post of attorney general.
Kane said Tuesday after her speech that she was close to naming a special prosecutor within her office to lead the review.
Yet if there is tension between her and Corbett, who has promised to cooperate with the review, it was not in evidence during the ceremony. The governor leaped to his feet when Kane finished her speech to lead the crowd in a standing ovation.
Corbett even rushed to the aid of Kane's younger son, Zachary, bringing him a bottle of water after the 10-year-old fainted from the heat in the crowded Rotunda. The boy quickly recovered.
Though the treasurer's ceremony was lighter on pomp and circumstance, McCord gave what many present likened to a stump speech. He is among a handful of Democrats mulling a challenge to Corbett in 2014.
McCord, who is white, spoke of two women he said had the greatest impact on his life: his mother-in-law, Aeolian Jackson, who is black and put herself through college, and his stepmother, Arline McCord, an American of Japanese ancestry who was forced to live in an internment camp during World War II, but who rose to become an associate provost at Yale University.
Their stories, he said, reminded him that government in America can evolve, improve itself, and make a difference.
McCord then said Pennsylvania needs to invest in education, roads, and bridges. He took a swipe at the controversial voter ID law Corbett signed, requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. "We need to replace a pinched pessimism with optimistic innovation," he said.
McCord has also said he will put a magnifying glass to Corbett's efforts to privatize the state lottery. After his speech, McCord told reporters he had not yet decided whether he would run for governor.
DePasquale, a former legislator from York County, promised to be "a tough, fair, independent" auditor general. He, too, said he would target the Corbett administration - its Department of Environmental Protection - in his first audit. He said he wants to ensure that drinking water is not being compromised in Marcellus Shale natural-gas drilling areas.
But DePasquale also sounded a bipartisan note. "We run under a partisan banner, but we serve the same people," he said. "Anybody can throw stones, anybody can tear a house down . . . but it does no good if you don't offer concrete, realistic solutions."
He said one of his first actions would be to review how audits are done because "we can't bang away at other agencies without first making sure we are efficient ourselves."
Contact Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com or follow @inkyamy on Twitter.
