ATTY. GENERAL

BILL LOCKYER

Lockyer has been involved in Democratic politics all his adult life. Prevented by term limits from running again for his state Senate seat, Lockyer wants to succeed Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, who is running for governor.

* Party: Democrat

* Occupation: State senator.

* Age: 57

* Residence: Hayward

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, UC Berkeley, 1965; McGeorge law school, 1986

* Career highlights: Elected to Assembly in 1973; elected to state Senate in 1982. Senate president pro tem for four years, until earlier this year. In that post, he was the most powerful Democrat in state government, taking a leading role in negotiating annual state budgets, making hundreds of appointments and exercising the power to kill bills. Author of legislation aimed at overhauling the civil justice system, establishing a new regulatory scheme for gambling and speeding the capital punishment process.

* Priorities: Supports an expanded ban on assault weapons; vows to aggressively pursue the state’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the tobacco industry; promises to aggressively enforce laws against pollution, consumer fraud and civil rights violations.

DAVE STIRLING

Stirling, a former state assemblyman and judge, was appointed chief deputy attorney general in 1990. On leave for more than a year to campaign, Stirling stresses law-and-order themes in his race to succeed his boss.

* Party: Republican

* Occupation: Chief deputy attorney general.

* Age: 58

* Residence: Walnut Grove

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, Principia College in Illinois, 1962; Tulane University law school, 1965.

* Career highlights: General law practice in Whittier and La Habra in the 1970s. Elected to the state Assembly in 1976; served until 1982, when he ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general. Appointed to head the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board that year, and later appointed to the Superior Court in Sacramento, where he served until taking the chief deputy job under Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. In that role, he helped write the three-strikes sentencing law and the 10-20-life law that adds prison time for felons who use guns.

* Priorities: Vows to push for tougher criminal sentences and focus on representing county prosecutors in death penalty appeals. Opposes gun control and questions the wisdom of the state’s lawsuit against the tobacco industry.