6 Democrats vie for votes in California's crowded attorney general race

Jerry Brown’s decision to run for governor instead of a second term as attorney general left the field for the state’s top cop wide open. Six Democrats are now vying for the party’s nomination for attorney general in the June primary.

Two of the candidates for attorney general already prosecute criminals for a living.

“Standing in courtrooms I’ve personally prosecuted homicide cases, some of the worst cases you can imagine,” San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said.

Harris thinks the state’s attorney general should understand law enforcement from the ground up. Harris says she’d be tough on crime, but also dedicated to keeping non-violent criminals from heading back to prison time and again.

“We need to have leadership around ensuring consequences for serious and violent crime,” Harris said, “and also paying attention to one of the biggest challenges facing the state of California, which is the highest recidivism rate in the country.”

Some criminals in San Francisco ended up back on the street after the city’s crime lab botched some test results. Six hundred cases were dismissed; a judge reprimanded Harris for hiding the crime lab’s problems.

Former L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is making a second run for attorney general. He says he’d invest in crime prevention, “Putting prosecutors out in the neighborhoods like I did in Los Angeles, putting prosecutors on school campuses to keep them safe. Crime drops, arrests go down, people don’t go to prison. We save that cost and also keep the community safe.”

Delgadillo says as L.A. city attorney, he also prosecuted high profile corporate defendants.

“I went after the health insurance companies when they canceled the policies illegally when policy holders got gravely ill,” Delgadillo said. “I won a $20 million settlement and got people back their insurance.”

Former Facebook privacy chief Chris Kelly is the only Democratic candidate for attorney general who’s never held elected office. He told KPCC’s Larry Mantle that’s a good thing.

“I’ve got the widest range of experience in this race,” Kelly explained, “both having been in business and having worked with law enforcement extensively.”

Kelly points to his work with 50 attorneys general to improve Internet security:

“I’ve put together innovative changes to sex offenders laws with Andrew Cuomo and other players in the space around making sure that online sites have better access to information on how to keep sex offenders away from kids and also fighting online scams and identity theft.”

Some Facebook users and privacy advocates have objected to new privacy settings Kelly helped develop. Critics say the settings Facebook adopted last year no longer allow users to restrict certain personal information from the public.

Three termed-out California Assembly members are also running for attorney general. Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said his experience in making laws qualifies him to enforce them.

Lieu wrote a bill to curb mortgage industry abuses in California.

“Anyone could get a home loan under one condition: if you breathe oxygen, you got a home loan,” Lieu recalled. “And what was worse was that they would put you into a loan that was higher risk, sub-prime – even if, though you qualified for a traditional, fixed-rate lower interest loan – because they got more commission in their pockets. My bill bans that.”

Lieu says he’d use the office of attorney general to spread his mortgage industry abuse crackdown nationwide.

Fellow Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont) has rallied support with a pledge to use the attorney general’s office to enforce every Californian’s right to an education. The lawmaker introduced a bill this year to tax oil companies to raise $2 billion for the state’s universities and community colleges.

At a recent rally with students Torrico declared, “It is time to make access to a quality education in California a civil right to all students!”

Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) says he wants to crack down on discrimination. And he says he has a leg up on the other candidates for attorney general.

“I am the only candidate to make a pledge to never run for governor!” Nava declared.

Five out of the last six California attorneys general have run for governor. Nava says it takes about $40 million to run a successful campaign for the governor’s office. Nava says that can create a conflict of interest.

"If you want to raise $40 million, you’re going to have to go to the banks, other financial institution, real estate developers, the health care industry, the insurance industry ... the very same people who need to be regulated – and when they do bad things, need to be prosecuted.”

Nava says if he’s the attorney general, he won’t be out raising that money. He figures that will leave him free to fight for the rights of people who don’t have the money to buy politicians in Sacramento – and to keep an eye on those who do.