Attorney General

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The Attorney General is an executive office in all 50 states that serves as the chief legal advisor and chief law enforcement officer for the state government and is empowered to prosecute violations of state law, represent the state in legal disputes and issue legal advice to state agencies and the legislature. In most states, the attorney general has a substantial influence on a state's approach to law enforcement. Attorneys general often set particular law enforcement priorities (e.g. drug law, civil rights violations or sexual crime) and focus extra resources on these issues. This puts them, in the words of the National Association of Attorneys General, at the "intersection of law and public policy."^[1]^[2]

Political parties

The chart below is a breakdown of the political parties pertaining to the state executive office of attorney general. For other state executive offices, click here.

Office	Democratic	Republican	Independent	Nonpartisan	Total seats
Attorney General	26	24	0	0	50
Counts current as of June 2013. If you see an error, please email us

Current officeholders

List of Current Attorneys General

List of All Current State Attorneys General in the United States
State	Officer	Assumed office	Political Party
South Carolina	Michael Alan Wilson	2011	Republican
Delaware	Joseph R. "Beau" Biden, III	2011	Democratic
Michigan	William Duncan "Bill" Schuette	2010	Republican
Vermont	William H. Sorrell	1997	Democratic
Washington	Bob Ferguson	2013	Democratic
Louisiana	Buddy Caldwell	2007	Republican
Nevada	Catherine Cortez Masto	2007	Democratic
Missouri	Chris Koster	2008	Democratic
Hawaii	David M. Louie	2010	Democratic
Kansas	Derek Schmidt	2011	Republican
Maryland	Douglas F. Gansler	2006	Democratic
Arkansas	Dustin McDaniel	2007	Democratic
Oregon	Ellen Rosenblum	2012	Democratic
New York	Eric Schneiderman	2010	Democratic
New Mexico	Gary King	2006	Democratic
Connecticut	George C. Jepsen	2011	Democratic
Texas	Greg Abbott	2002	Republican
Indiana	Greg Zoeller	2008	Republican
Wyoming	Gregory Phillips	2011	Democratic
Wisconsin	J.B. Van Hollen	2007	Republican
Kentucky	Jack Conway	2007	Democratic
Maine	Janet T. Mills	2012	Democratic
Mississippi	Jim Hood	2004	Democratic
New Hampshire	Joe Foster	2013	Democratic
New Jersey	John Hoffman	20123	Republican
Utah	John Swallow	2013	Republican
Colorado	John W. Suthers	2005	Republican
Nebraska	Jon Bruning	2002	Republican
California	Kamala D. Harris	2011	Democratic
Pennsylvania	Kathleen Kane	2013	Democratic
Virginia	Ken Cuccinelli	2010	Republican
Idaho	Lawrence Wasden	2003	Republican
Illinois	Lisa Madigan	2003	Democratic
Minnesota	Lori Swanson	2007	Democratic
Alabama	Luther J. Strange, III	2011	Republican
Massachusetts	Martha Coakley	2007	Democratic
South Dakota	Marty J. Jackley	2009	Republican
Alaska	Michael Geraghty	2012	Republican
Ohio	Richard Michael DeWine	2011	Republican
Florida	Pam Bondi	2011	Republican
West Virginia	Patrick Morrisey	2013	Republican
Rhode Island	Peter Kilmartin	2011	Democratic
Tennessee	Robert E. Cooper, Jr.	2006	Democratic
North Carolina	Roy Cooper	2000	Democratic
Georgia	Samuel S. Olens	2011	Republican
Oklahoma	Scott Pruitt	2010	Republican
Montana	Tim Fox	2013	Republican
Arizona	Thomas C. Horne	2011	Republican
Iowa	Thomas John Miller	1995	Democratic
North Dakota	Wayne Stenehjem	2001	Republican

Elected vs. Appointed

43 states directly elect Attorneys General. Others are appointed by either the governor, state legislature or state supreme court.

Attorneys general are chosen in four different ways; they are either popularly elected or appointed by the governor, the state legislature, or the state supreme court. The office is elective in 43 states and chosen by a state government organ in 6.

The attorney general is appointed by the governor in four states: Alaska, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Wyoming.

In Maine and New Hampshire, the officeholder is chosen by the state legislature, while in Tennessee the choice falls to the state supreme court.

Quick facts about Attorneys General
There are 21 Democratic, 22 Republican, and 7 Non-Partisan attorneys general. 10 states have attorney general elections in the 2012 electoral cycle: Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. In 2010 the annual salaries for state attorneys general ranged from $77,200 (Oregon) to $172,794 (Arkansas).

Election history

2012 elections

Ten states held attorney general elections in the 2012 electoral cycle: Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.

Heading into the November election, the Democrats held 6 of the seats and the Republicans held 4 seats. Five incumbents sought, and won, re-election, and the status breakdown of the remaining seats was as follows:

Two - Montana AG Steve Bullock (D) and Washington AG Rob McKenna (R) - ran for the governorship in their respective states in 2012.
One - Utah AG Mark Shurtleff (R) - retired from office.
One - 2011 appointee Pennsylvania AG Linda Kelly (R) - did not run for election due to the terms of her Senate confirmation.
One - Oregon AG John Kroger (D) - resigned six months ahead of schedule to take a new job as President of Reed College in Portland. Gov. John Kitzhaber appointed Ellen Rosenblum, who was running for 2012 election to the attorney general post at the time, to serve as interim attorney general for the remainder of his unexpired term. Rosenblum was elected to a full term in the November 6, 2012 general election.

Democrats won 6 of the 2012 races while Republicans took 4, thus the partisan balance remained unchanged.

2011 elections

Main article: Attorney General elections, 2011

Three states, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi, had regularly scheduled attorney general elections in the 2011 electoral cycle.

Incumbents were re-elected in all three states. Democratic incumbents Jack Conway (KY) and Jim Hood (MS) successfully defended their posts against Republican challengers Todd P’Pool and Steve Simpson, respectively. The Attorney General of Louisiana election was decided even before the October 22, 2011 primary election. Incumbent Republican Buddy Caldwell was unopposed in the race after his sole challenger, former U.S. Representative Joseph Cao withdrew from the race in late September 2011, and ^[1] the office of attorney general did not appear on the ballot.

2010 elections

Main article: Attorney General elections, 2010

Thirty attorney general elections were held on November 2, 2010. Of the 30 seats that were up for election, 20 were held by a Democrat and 10 by a Republican. Of those 30 races, 16 were won by Republicans and 14 by Democrats- a net gain of 6 by Republicans over their pre-election total.

Partisan breakdown of State Attorneys General
Party	Before November 2010 election			After November 2010 election
Party	With 2010 elections	Unelected AGs	Total AGs	Post 2010 elections	Unelected AGs	Total AGs	Gain/loss legislators
Democratic	20	12	32	14	12	26	-6
Republican	10	8	18	16	8	24	+6

Recent news

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