Capital Research Center: State Attorneys General Abusing Their Power?; Which AGs Made the List.

WASHINGTON -- In the September 2005 installment of Organization Trends, John Gizzi, political editor for Human Events, examines and scrutinizes the role of state attorneys general in the article "State Attorneys General: A National Association of Aspiring Governors?"

The following are findings from Gizzi's article:

What was once a position of relative obscurity and behind-the-scenes toil, state attorneys general have begun emerging into more public positions. They are currently surfacing as major political players and exercise extraordinary power that can be easily abused -- a fact that has left many to consider possible repercussions.

Currently the office of states' attorneys general has become a political launching pad for dozens of hopeful attorneys general. One of these political characters is Oklahoma Attorney General W.A. "Drew" Edmondson. In his 11 years as state attorney general, he has served as an aggressive political figure and activist, crusading against tobacco companies and creating a name for himself as a consumer advocate. But closer scrutiny has revealed that Edmondson had only personal interests in mind as he pursued headlines and penalized businesses.

With his gilt-edged political and social contacts, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is pegged as a future governor. Admiring Connecticut Democrats called him "The Man With the Golden Resume." Blumenthal's most recent targets read like a Who's Who of businesses that have run into rough ethical sailing: HMOs, Enron, Arthur Andersen, Bridgestone-Firestone and Midwestern coal-fired power companies, which the attorney general is suing for polluting Connecticut air. "The job lends itself to playing The People's Lawyer: forcing polluters to clean up, manufacturers to make safe products, greedy insurers to cough up claim checks, sleazy telemarketers to tell the truth," observes Carole Bass of the New Haven Advocate.

When she became Illinois's first female attorney general in 2002, the pundits thought Democrat Lisa Madigan was an extension of her powerful and well-known father, State House Speaker Michael Madigan. When she summarizes her record of accomplishment as "great victories in the areas of consumer protection, public safety, crime victim services, and environmental protection," Madigan sounds just like other politically ambitious and aggressive attorneys general. As Illinois Times political pundit Rich Miller wrote this May: "The U.S. Chamber and other national business groups ... see Lisa Madigan as the next Eliot Spitzer, New York's fiery and highly successful attorney general who is the odds-on favorite to become that state's next governor." Madigan, against whom Illinois Republicans are now hard-pressed to recruit a candidate, has signaled she will run for re-election in 2006 and for governor in 2010.

Mike Cox is the third attorney general Michigan has had in 44 years. While Cox embraces the task of consumer protection, he differs from other attorneys general in first issuing warnings rather than going to court with headline-grabbing lawsuits. In so doing, the attorney general has deployed the Notice of Intended Action Act (NIA) under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. In 2003 he used the NIA to warn Razmataz, Inc. of Sterling Heights to end its deceptive Internet advertising, which misrepresented the company's contributions to U.S. servicemen whenever consumers bought Razmataz products such as commemorative coins (which also misled consumers by suggesting that they were struck by the U.S. Mint). In his words, "Unfortunately, this is one company that's living up, or down, to its name. If the 'razzmatazz' continues, I intend to file a lawsuit and ask the court to stop it once and for all." Razmataz did the required consumer cleaning. Cox also won praise for pursuing deadbeat parents and increasing collections from them.

John Gizzi, political editor for Human Events and author of "State Attorneys General: A National Association of Aspiring Governors?" is available for comment regarding Edmondson and other state attorneys general.

ABOUT CRC: Capital Research Center is a nonprofit public policy research organization based in Washington, D.C., established in 1984 to study critical issues in philanthropy with a special focus on non-profit "public interest" and advocacy groups, the funding which sustains them, their agendas and their impact on public policy and society. For reprint information or to read the full editorial, visit www.capitalresearch.org.

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