Attorneys General Looking Partisan

They took down tobacco for a shattering $206 billion. Shook up the sweepstakes and drug industries. Spooked the gun industry with talk of a crackdown, and looked at the Internet’s trouble protecting privacy.

State attorneys general, working together, pushed their way onto the national stage in recent years.

But while the AGs’ activism has raised their profile, it’s also created a rift, with conservatives worried that their colleagues have overstepped their bounds. The split has fueled a hunt for money to fund a slew of attorney general races coming up in the next two years.

“The office is now more in play as one that people think about, as one they have to be strategic about and try to put people in who share their political and overall philosophy,” said Connie Campanella, president of Stateside Associates, a consulting firm for companies that track state governments. “They are becoming more of a target.”

As elections approach for more than half the nation’s AGs, several factors have earned more attention for the office.

Foremost was the creation of the Republican Attorneys General Assn. in 1999. It aims to support candidates who agree with a “limited government” and more “market-oriented, conservative” approach to the office, said Alabama Atty. Gen. Bill Pryor.

Pryor, the group’s chairman, said the traditional legal work of attorneys general has become too activist and has stepped into areas that belong to lawmakers, such as creating new regulatory powers. He cited the litigation against tobacco and Microsoft, and proposals to protect privacy on the Internet.

“It’s a philosophical argument,” he said, “but it breaks down along party lines.”

The group, known by its acronym RAGA, also seeks donations from corporate sponsors and others, with membership starting at $5,000 and rising to $25,000.

It held a fund-raiser last winter in Palm Beach, and one last year, in Texas, that included a skeet shoot sponsored by the National Rifle Assn.

Last year’s meeting raised $500,000. Officials wouldn’t say how much they’d raised so far this year.

“If they’re raising money, essentially soft money, from various corporations and interests and individuals that they may eventually have to regulate, it raises all the appearance issues--at least,” said Scott Harshbarger, a Democrat and former Massachusetts attorney general. Now he heads Common Cause, which advocates campaign finance reform.

Forty-three attorneys general are publicly elected, with the rest appointed by governors, chosen by state Supreme Court or by the legislature.

Democrats far outnumber Republicans--33 to 17. But three of those GOP-held offices were won last year, and a bigger prize is coming, with 30 offices up for election this year and next. (Virginia’s attorney general will be chosen in November, the others in 2002.)

Those elections will come against the backdrop of the multi-state lawsuits and big-dollar settlements that rankle Pryor, and which have increased the perception that the attorney general is a powerful official.

Sweepstakes companies, including Publishers Clearing House, have agreed to pay more than $60 million to resolve lawsuits about promotions; a pharmaceutical company tentatively agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims that it fixed prices of anti-anxiety drugs widely used by senior citizens.

“I don’t think attorneys general are acting any differently,” said Carla Stovall, Kansas attorney general and president of the nonpartisan National Assn. of Attorneys General. “I just think that, after tobacco, the rest of the country is thinking differently.”

The added visibility has a substantial number of AGs contemplating higher office. At least nine are exploring runs for governor or U.S. senator this year or next, with three more rumored to be weighing campaigns.

Their newfound political power is played out, too, in conflicts with governors that go beyond everyday disputes.

In Michigan, Utah and Alabama, governors or legislative leaders sought to curtail the attorney general’s powers. Usually they sought to limit the AG’s role in defending state legal interests, and to give governors more power.

In Utah and Alabama, agreements were reached that allowed governors a bit more flexibility in seeking outside legal help; in Michigan, a court ruling limited the AG’s power. In New Mexico, the governor proposed, unsuccessfully, that he and not voters choose the attorney general.

But the larger question facing AGs is the direction of the office--whether to take an activist role or not. Fund-raising could affect the answer.

RAGA’s fund-raising campaign has drawn vehement complaints about the mix of justice, politics and money, and not just from Democrats. Several Republican AGs, including Stovall, refused to participate. Ohio Atty. Gen. Betty Montgomery joined but later quit, citing questions she had about donors and the time it took to sort out “ethical land mines.”

“It’s really not for any group of Republican attorneys general or Democratic attorneys general to dictate what Kansas or Colorado or anyplace else ought to have in play,” Stovall said.

The money raised by RAGA flows through the Republican National Committee, where it is mingled with other funds and can then be given to state parties, to candidates or to related issue-oriented campaigns.

The public can’t follow who specifically gave to RAGA, or how that money was spent.

Among the companies that have acknowledged their contributions to the group are Microsoft Corp., which faces multistate litigation from the attorneys general, and SBC Communications, which through a subsidiary controls one-third of the nation’s phone lines.

Democrats and campaign finance critics say the fund-raising injects an inappropriate degree of politics into a law enforcement office.

Pryor scoffs at the criticism, noting that elected attorneys general rely on campaign donations, often from trial lawyers who seek work from the state. Besides, money is a valid way for supporters to express political desires, he said.

“I don’t see anything wrong with raising money to support a legitimate perspective,” Pryor said.

And if the GOP strategy proves successful, their approach would likely be echoed by Democrats.

“You can’t just sit around and get beaten up,” said Florida Atty. Gen. Bob Butterworth, a four-term Democrat. But even now, Democrats nationally could just as easily direct money toward attorney general races without a formal group.

Democratic AGs and party officials acknowledge there has been talk of responding in kind to the new GOP money, but say no action has been taken.

In the last election, RAGA did not target races involving incumbents, Pryor said. But he wouldn’t rule out getting involved in an incumbent’s race, despite Democrats’ view that there is an unwritten agreement to steer clear.

Although Congress is still weighing a ban on soft money, cash will fuel this battle for an important state office in the meantime.

And the votes this fall and next will determine its outcome.