Umberg Launches Race for Attorney General : Politics: The assemblyman attacks incumbent Dan Lungren and fellow Democrat Arlo Smith, both of whom have failed to stem crime, he says.

Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg launched his campaign for state attorney general Thursday and immediately went on the attack, saying Republican incumbent Dan Lungren has lost the war on crime.

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Umberg, a former federal prosecutor and the only Democrat from Orange County in the Legislature, vowed to focus on juvenile crime to help keep first-time offenders from becoming revolving-door felons.

“It’s not a place where a lot of people focus their attention because it’s not that sexy,” said Umberg, who was flanked by his wife, Robin, and campaign aides. “But unless we do, we’re going to have second- and third-time offenders who graduate from auto theft to residential burglary to armed robbery.”

During a half-hour press conference in a restaurant near the Capitol, Umberg repeatedly criticized his opponent in the June 7 Democratic primary, San Francisco District Atty. Arlo Smith, as well as Lungren. Smith narrowly lost the attorney general’s race to Lungren in 1990.

“Arlo Smith and Dan Lungren have one thing in common--both have failed in the fight to keep our neighborhoods safe,” declared Umberg, who said he was running as a “citizen prosecutor” who could get the job done.

Umberg, 38, said the attorney general has “presided over record-breaking violent crime” while failing to curb gangs, drug dealers and the proliferation of guns in public schools. He also criticized Lungren for not using the post as a “bully pulpit” to push for more law enforcement funding from the Legislature and Washington.

Calling San Francisco “the most unsafe county in California,” Umberg ridiculed Smith as ineffective, concluding that “with a record like his, Arlo Smith should be running for cover, not for attorney general.”

Smith said Umberg had misrepresented his accomplishments during four terms as San Francisco’s top prosecutor, and suggested that the assemblyman lacks the statewide name identification and experience to mount a successful campaign. “I think I’ve probably handled more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than he’s ever brought to trial,” Smith said. “He’s totally lacking in experience.”

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Joanne Stabler, Lungren’s campaign director, said Umberg’s attacks on the attorney general were premature because the assemblyman first must defeat Smith in the primary. She also defended Lungren’s record, saying the state’s crime rate fell last year, and that he has worked hard to press legislation designed to combat gangs and school violence.

Stabler criticized Umberg for failing to push more tough anti-crime legislation through the liberal-leaning Assembly Public Safety Committee, a traditional graveyard for anti-crime bills.

“The Rip Van Winkle of the Public Safety Committee has finally awakened,” she said. “He’s been sitting on that committee for a long time now and hasn’t put forth any tough crime-fighting legislation.”

Umberg’s opponents also ripped him for failing early on to champion the “three-strikes-you’re-out” measure now headed for the ballot. Today, Umberg is pushing his own “three-strikes” bill, which he calls a “good first step,” and said he is a backer of the ballot initiative.

Although both Lungren and Smith enjoy better name recognition around the state, Umberg hopes to use a growing campaign bankroll, ties to law enforcement groups and strategic support from more than two dozen supporters in the Legislature to aid his campaign. Heading into the primary battle, Umberg has nearly $300,000 cash on hand compared to about $36,000 for Smith.

Umberg is a relative newcomer to politics, getting elected to office for the first time in 1990 when he defeated Republican Assemblyman Curt Pringle for a central Orange County seat. He won a second term in 1992 and has been embraced by Democratic leaders as a rising star, someone whose credentials as a moderate lawmaker--he supports the death penalty--might help expand the party’s base.

A graduate of UCLA and the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, Umberg enlisted in the Army and served stints in Korea and Italy, gaining the rank of captain and serving as a military prosecutor. He left the service in 1985 and is now a major in the Army Reserve.

After his military career, Umberg was appointed to the U.S. attorney’s office in Santa Ana, where he spent three years prosecuting drug and gang cases, as well as white-collar and hate crimes. In his campaign literature, Umberg boasts of a 100% conviction rate on the cases he handled.