David Lujan announces for Attorney General

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In the least suspenseful announcement of the year, House Minority Leader David Lujan finally made it official and annouced today that he is running for Attorney General. From the Arizona Guardian Lujan's in AG's race: House minority leader makes it official (subscription required):

Scrap the exploratory tag. House Minority Leader David Lujan on Thursday announced he’s officially running to become the state’s top law enforcement official.

The highest-ranking Democrat in the House said he intends to seek his party’s nomination for attorney general and pledged to take on corrupt politicians and crooked corporations.

“I’ve stood in a courtroom and prosecuted criminals,” said Lujan, who is an attorney. “I’ve taken on corrupt politicians and corporations who violated workers’ rights. I’ve authored tough laws to crack down on violent crime identity theft.”

Lujan won’t be the only Democrat seeking their party’s nomination. He'll be competing against Felecia Rotellini in the Aug. 24 Democratic primary. Rotellini most recently ran the state Department of Financial Institutions.

Lujan, who was first elected to the House in 2004, is running as a publicly funded candidate under the state’s clean elections system. Public candidates agree to forgo private contributions in favor of public funds to run their campaigns.

Before he can qualify for the money he must collect $5 donations from 2,755 registered voters. If he can accomplish that, he’ll be eligible to collect $183,311 in public funds to run his political operations during the primary.

Unless he wanted to give up his House seat, Lujan was banned from officially running for attorney general because of a state law prohibiting elected officials from seeking another office until the last year of their term. But Lujan was allowed to explore the possibility, which allowed him to raise some cash.

NB: Stay tuned for an announcement from Assistant Attorney General Vince Rabago.