 In April 2011, DePasquale announced that he would be running for State Auditor General in 2012 to succeed incumbent Jack Wagner, who was term-limited.DePasquale made Marcellus Shale drilling a central issue of his campaign, and promised to order an immediate performance audit of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ensure the state's water supply had not been compromised by drilling.He defeated Republican state representative John Maher in the fall general election.