“Terrible Ten” State Attorneys General Profiled in New Study

Contact:  Christine Hall, 202.331.2258

Washington, D.C., January 24, 2007—A new CEI study of abuse of power by state attorneys general singles out Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut as the worst attorney general in the country.  Following close behind are the former attorneys general of California and New York, Bill Lockyer and Eliot Spitzer, respectively.

The study, released today, examines the 10 worst state attorneys general in the country.

“Over the past decade, attorneys general have increasingly usurped the role of state legislatures and Congress by using litigation to impose interstate and national regulations and to extract money from out-of-state defendants,” explains Hans Bader, Counsel for Special Projects at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in The Nation’s Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General. 

“The worst offenders flaunt such abuse of power, with the most notorious of the lot … boasting that he ‘has redefined the role of Attorney General,’” writes Bader.

The list includes current and recent attorneys general:

1.       Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut

2.       Bill Lockyer, California

3.       Eliot Spitzer, New York

4.       Zulima Farber, New Jersey

5.       Patrick Lynch, Rhode Island

6.       Darrell McGraw, West Virginia

7.       William Sorrell, Vermont

8.       Lisa Madigan, Illinois

9.       Peg Lautenschlager, Wisconsin

10.   Tom Reilly, Massachusetts