Attorney general’s race

Rob McKenna

Republican

Personal: 42, married, with four children

Education: Earned dual bachelor’s degrees in economics and international studies from the University of Washington in 1985. He got his law degree in 1988 from the University of Chicago Law School.

Professional: McKenna worked for the Seattle law firm Perkins Coie from 1988 to 1995, doing mostly business and regulatory law.

Political: McKenna was elected to the King County Council in 1996, running unopposed in 1999 and 2003.

Key issues: “Protecting people’s rights, protecting public safety and protecting taxpayers’ pocketbooks.” The specifics: As the state’s lawyer, McKenna said he’d make sure that state government follows the law. He’s annoyed, for example, at state agencies’ violations of the state public records laws. He said he would protect public safety by being the state’s “top advocate for law enforcement.” And he said he would protect taxpayers by reducing lawsuits against the state and pushing for changes to reduce liability lawsuits against anyone, not just the state. He would strengthen the AG’s consumer protection division. He said he would also make sure state agencies stay within their legal mandates, “that they’re not constantly expanding their regulatory reach beyond what the Legislature intended.”

Deborah Senn

Democrat

Personal: 55, married, two children.

Education: Senn has a bachelor’s in history (1970) and master’s in political science (1976) from the University of Illinois. Her law degree is from Loyola University, also in 1976.

Professional: Senn worked for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency as a law student and after graduation. She then went to work as a lawyer representing consumers in utility cases, and spent a year as a TV reporter in Anchorage. She then became counsel to a telecom- munications committee in the Washington Legislature from 1985 to 1989. She became a lobbyist, representing the Service Employees International Union, the Northwest Women’s Law Center and the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She is now a lawyer and expert witness, specializing in asbestos and insurance cases.

Political: After an unsuccessful run for state Senate, Senn was elected state Insurance Commissioner in 1992, serving from 1993 to 2001. She was known as an outspoken advocate for consumers, with Ralph Nader once calling her the best insurance commissioner in the country. Her insurance reforms – and their costs to insurers – drew fire from health insurers, however, some of whom stopped writing new individual policies in the state.

Key issues: Senn said she would defend home ownership by targeting predatory lenders. She would also focus on prescription drug problems, such as a recent anti-trust case in which drug companies were allegedly working together to try to keep generic drugs off the market. Senn said she would aggressively go after high-tech crime, including identity theft, “spam” e-mails, and so-called spyware: programs that can secretly monitor keystrokes or computer activity. She said she would like to investigate this summer’s surge in gas prices, and that she’s committed to continuing the Hanford cleanup.