The Indiana attorney general's office will soon see at least one big change, and possibly more, in the next few months.
Attorney General Steve Carter, a Republican, is leaving at the end of his term. Hoping to succeed him are his top deputy, Republican Greg Zoeller, and Democrat Linda Pence.
Another change, if some candidates for seats in the General Assembly get their way, would be to give the new attorney general prosecutorial powers. That's a debate for another time, but it's worth remembering that possibility as voters choose the next attorney general.
The attorney general is the state's top lawyer. He or she represents the state in civil lawsuits and in appeals involving criminals.
Under Carter's administration, the attorney general also has entered the field of investigating public corruption and vote fraud cases. Steve Carter and Lake County Prosecutor Bernie Carter (no relation) brought in Indiana State Police resources and state lawyers to dig deep into East Chicago operations after the botched 2003 mayoral primary.
The attorney general could not prosecute anyone in the resulting vote fraud lawsuits because the office doesn't have prosecutorial powers, so it assisted Lake County's prosecutor in obtaining 46 vote fraud convictions. The attorney general's office also filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's administration in the wake of the 1999 Sidewalk Six scandal. That suit accuses the city government under Pastrick's rule of being a corrupt organization.
One of the architects of the attorney general's attack on public corruption has been Zoeller. He remains committed to attacking corruption.
Pence is an aggressive candidate, but she should have been more up-front about her role in the racketeering case, in which she represented Rieth-Riley. The contractor paid $625,000 to settle the claims against it and agreed to cooperate against the remaining defendants.
Attorney-client privilege must be protected, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't have made it clear right away that she represented one of the major contractors in that case.
Pence's negative edge is troublesome. She says Zoeller's references to the racketeering lawsuit against the Pastrick administration is a political maneuver, perhaps because Pastrick is a powerhouse in her own Democratic Party. But Zoeller's zeal for the racketeering lawsuit speaks to his commitment to attacking public corruption.
Carter's administration has worked well. We endorse Zoeller, who has been an important contributor to Carter's successes, for Indiana's next attorney general.
