Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Washington States Attorney General race pits a straight-laced incumbent against a cowboy-boot wearing challenger.

Republican Rob McKenna is seeking a second term and says his record has earned him four more years. Democratic challenger John Ladenburg argues it’s time for a more aggressive AG.

In this voter’s guide, Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins profiles the candidates and their differing styles.

Democrat Ladenburg is running a TV ad that shows a pair of boxing gloves next to a pair of children’s mittens. The message: Ladenburg is a heavyweight fighter while McKenna wears kid gloves.

John Ladenburg: “The Attorney General ought to be somebody you’ve heard of and ought to have done a major initiative in four years, his office hasn’t lead the way in anything and that’s what the public ought to be concerned about.”

McKenna, of course, disagrees pointing out he’s led the way on initiatives to crackdown on spyware, sex predators and ID theft and that’s not all.

Rob McKenna: “We have issued hundreds and hundreds of subpoenas. I’ve brought more than forty lawsuits against computer chip makers, every major drug company, industry after industry, company after company where they’ve violated the law so there’s a lot of puffery and demagoguery on the other side and it just doesn’t stand up to the facts.”

But Ladenburg – a two-term Pierce County Executive – says he’d follow the model of Governor Chris Gregoire, a fellow Democrat and former AG. He notes she played a national role in the multi-state lawsuit against big tobacco in the 1990s.

John Ladenburg: “All McKenna’s done is join in a couple of big nationwide settlements with other Attorney Generals who brought those actions and I think that people ought to be concerned that Rob McKenna is just treading water to look for another office.”

Namely Governor. It’s often joked that AG could stand for aspiring governor because so many attorneys general rise to that position.

McKenna won’t rule it out in the future, but says that’s not his focus now. McKenna flat out rejects the notion that he hasn’t been aggressive.

He played a role in multi-state settlements with mortgage giants Ameriquest and Countrywide. Together they netted more than $200 million for customers in Washington State.

He also claims credit for a drop in the number of meth labs in the state from 1400 when he was elected to 25 so far this year. If re-elected he says he’ll have a new target.

Rob McKenna: “Now we’re turning to prescription drugs as the next big priority for the simple reason that there are more people dying from prescription drug overdoses than any other accidentally cause of death except traffic accidents.”

When you sit down with both these candidates you can’t help but notice they have very different styles.

Ladenburg, the Democrat, is a feisty former prosecutor who likes to invoke California’s Jerry Brown. More stick, less carrot.

McKenna, on the other hand, is more the white shoe lawyer who believes you don’t have to run with the Jerry Browns of the world to be an activist AG.

Colin Provost is an American researcher who now teaches in London. He’s written extensively about state attorneys general. He says McKenna’s middle-of-the-road approach appears aimed at not running afoul of Washington’s Democratic majority.

Colin Provost: “It looks like McKenna has acted pretty much the way we’d expect a Republican Attorney General in a blue state to act. I mean he’s taken on a lot of fairly centrist issues but a lot of issues as well that are not really going to cost him anything like he’s been fighting against meth use and he’s proposed a lot of measures about protecting children and those are kind of the gravy issues if you will for an attorney general.”

Usually, says Provost, incumbent AGs win re-election unless they’ve done something to anger voters.

McKenna has the lead in polls. He’s also picked up endorsements from all the major daily newspapers in Washington – except for Ladenburg’s hometown paper the Tacoma News Tribune. It did a rare duel endorsement in which it called both candidates superbly qualified.

Online:

McKenna for AG

Ladenburg for AG