McKenna challenger hopes for late surge

OLYMPIA – At a recent debate in front of a business group, Democratic attorney John Ladenburg compared his record as a prosecutor to Attorney General Rob McKenna’s. The state, he told the crowd, doesn’t have time for “on the job training” of its highest law enforcement official.

“Ask yourself who you would hire, as a businessman,” Ladenburg said. “A person with 26 years in the courtroom, or a person who has never tried a case in his life?”

McKenna chuckled, shook his head and turned to the crowd.

“I think John is the only person in Washington state who believes that being attorney general for four years isn’t a qualification to run for attorney general in Washington state.”

The crowd laughed.

The moment was a portrait in miniature of the monthslong, $1.5 million campaign: Ladenburg throwing punches and McKenna seeming unscathed.

The two are vying to lead what is essentially the state’s largest law firm, a stable of 550 government attorneys. Among their jobs: cracking down on scams and fraud, advising state agencies and officials, and taking on high-profile cases such as the vehicular homicide trial of Fred Russell and the continued confinement of Spokane rapist Kevin Coe.

After months of campaigning and nearly half a million dollars spent, polls and the August primary suggest that McKenna has a comfortable lead over his challenger. But Ladenburg’s hoping that a surge of Democratic votes for Barack Obama will boost his numbers as well.

Many voters appear undecided. Independent pollster Stuart Elway said his most recent poll, in early September, showed 42 percent of likely voters supporting McKenna, 29 percent Ladenburg, and 29 percent undecided.

“That hadn’t changed since July,” Elway said. “The state is running pretty blue, so let’s see what happens. But that’s a lot of ground (for Ladenburg) to make up.”

McKenna, a former corporate attorney and King County councilman, was elected attorney general in 2004. He’s pushed for tighter restrictions on sex offenders, tougher laws against methamphetamine, and to open more government records to the public. He’s persuaded lawmakers to improve some protections against identity theft and scammers preying on families facing foreclosure. And he’s fostered a computer crime unit that goes after Internet con artists and spammers.

In his first term, he argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including one to uphold the new top-two primary. He won both cases.

Ladenburg, however, maintains that McKenna is largely a paper tiger, producing task forces and press releases instead of really going to bat as an advocate for Washingtonians.

“You can do this job as the people’s lawyer,” he said.

He mocked McKenna for organizing shred-your-old-records days with volunteer shredding trucks as part of a campaign against identity theft.

“Totally worthless to people,” Ladenburg said. “Everybody in this state knew that 20 years ago.”

He criticized McKenna for a months-long “investigation” into gasoline prices that resulted in no subpoenas. The result was a mere study that revealed very little, Ladenburg said. And he said the state still ranks high in identity theft, despite years of McKenna touting it as a key issue.

“Look for results,” Ladenburg said.

As Pierce County’s prosecutor for 14 years and Pierce County executive for seven, Ladenburg said, he has the experience to be a far more effective attorney general. He’s run a business, handled all manner of cases, and spent years battling in courtrooms.

“You can’t name a function in that office that I haven’t personally done,” he said of the agency’s duties.

As prosecutor, he helped write tougher laws against drug dealing and gang violence. He pioneered sex-predator notifications and the state’s “three-strikes” law, and he helped rewrite the state’s sex-predator laws.

As attorney general, Ladenburg said, he’d be an “activist attorney” who would get answers and results.

McKenna said that on his watch, meth lab problems have dropped steeply, although he noted that the county with the worst meth problem is the one Ladenburg runs.

“I say yeah, let’s look at results,” McKenna said.

If re-elected, McKenna said, he will expand the fight to include prescription drug abuse. He said he’ll propose major legislation to better protect vulnerable adults, as well as a domestic-violence overhaul aimed at making sure serial abusers serve jail time.