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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Hottest Galleries: October 3, 2007 Two stump for top lawyer slot By Chris Rizo Ashland Daily Tidings SALEM — In what could become a heated race to be Oregon's next attorney general, a three-term state legislator with a reputation as a bright legal mind is going head-to-head with a law school professor who as a federal prosecutor helped put mobsters and corporate scofflaws behind bars. Although both Democrats in the race praised the integrity and skill of retiring Attorney General Hardy Myers, they differ on how to build on the efforts of Myers, who quietly led the state Department of Justice since first elected to the post in 1996. State Rep. Greg Macpherson of Lake Oswego, a third-term state lawmaker whose father and grandfather served in the Oregon Legislature, said in an interview Tuesday that as attorney general he would be a tireless advocate for Oregonians and a zealous protector the state's rich natural resources. "I see the attorney general's position as being the people's advocate for both delivering good legal services to the state but also improving the lives of Oregonians by protecting them and the state's natural treasures," said Macpherson, 57, chairman of the House Judiciary Commit Among Macpherson's other priorities: to make neighborhoods safer, protect consumers from flimflam artists and protect a woman's right to choose. Macpherson, a longtime attorney at the prestigious Portland law firm of Stoel Rives LLP, specializes in employee health benefits. His rival, John Kroger, who teaches at Lewis & Clark College's Northwestern School of Law, pledged to bring to the office an aggressive pursuit of corporate polluters, drug dealers and deadbeat parents. "There are real big challenges that the state faces on issues that I care a lot about," Kroger said, mentioning the meth crisis and environmental protection as two of them. "In both of these areas we could be doing a much, much better job." Kroger, 41, said that in "big cases that affect a huge number of Oregonians," he would go to court himself rather than dispatching one of his lieutenants to represent the state. "When the voters vote for an attorney general, they're not just electing a politician — they're hiring a lawyer," Kroger said. "It's important that that lawyer be ready to go to court and fight for the citizens." In his time as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, N.Y., Kroger said he worked on hundreds of felony cases and "won big trials" against Mafia captains and drug kingpins, worked on the emergency response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and helped prosecute Enron Corp. executives who were convicted ultimately of defrauding investors. "I come to this attorney general's race with very broad experience, going after people who've done bad things and tried to hold them accountable," Kroger said. Like firebrand former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Kroger said he would use the AG office's bully pulpit to push for policies important to the state, adding that Myers, in his time as Oregon's attorney general, has "at times shunned the limelight." "Eliot Spitzer fought really hard against powerful interests and I really admire that," Kroger said. "The one thing I would do differently from Spitzer is that Spitzer was running for governor for the whole time he was attorney general." Kroger added, "I am not interested in the attorney general's job as a steppingstone to something else." Macpherson raised questions about his Kroger's comments that he would be a high-profile litigant similar to Spitzer, now governor of the Empire State. "Someone who wants to be the next Eliot Spitzer should run for attorney general in New York," Macpherson said. "What we need in Oregon is someone who understands the problems that Oregonians face." Macpherson said he has been at the fore in Salem, mentioning his role in shaping such far-reaching legislation as helping to draft Measure 49 on the Nov. 6 ballot aimed at preserving farmland and open space and helping in 2003 to overhaul Oregon's public employees' pension system. "I've taken on some of the toughest issues we have in the state, and have had a positive impact on them," Macpherson said. Although no Republican candidates have emerged, the state Republican Party has promised the Democrats a challenger. Chris Rizo covers politics for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Contact him at [email protected]. Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising: Debt Help Inkjet Printers Payday Loans Free Ringtones Debt Consolidation Security Systems Debt Relief New Hampshire Primary Advertisement: Copyright © 2007 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved. Del.icio.us