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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Ind. Gov't. - "Attorney general candidates outline plans"

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal has a long article today on the race for Indiana attorney general. It begins:

Voters have a clear choice in this year's race for state attorney general between a candidate who works in the office and is seeking to enhance its duties and an opponent who wants to make extensive changes.
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New Albany native Greg Zoeller, the Republican, is already the No. 2 man in the attorney general's office, overseeing day-to-day operations and serving as point person on key cases and policy.

He promises if elected to continue Attorney General Steve Carter's fight against telemarketers, to work toward similar protections against e-mail solicitations and to defend teachers challenged for imposing discipline in the classroom.

"There will probably be similarities," said Zoeller, 53. "I think Attorney General Carter has been remarkably successful. There are things I will probably do differently, but they might have been the same if Carter would have done a third term."

But Democrat Linda Pence, an Indianapolis attorney and former branch chief at the Justice Department, believes the office is doing too little to protect consumers, children and crime victims and sees a broader role for its 140 attorneys.

She proposes to get more involved in local prosecutions, creating specialists to help with cases such as child seduction and drugs. And as attorney general, she promises to launch more state investigations, including explorations of child deaths and national gasoline pricing.

"What I want to do is really re-establish priorities," said Pence, 58. "You can have lawyers working on things to me that are more significant than others. I know when I get in there, there's going to be a number of areas where I'm going to shift priorities around."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 5, 2008 12:32 PM
Posted to Indiana Government