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In a race largely overshadowed by the more prominent battles for president and U.S. Senator, the two Oregonians seeking to replace Hardy Myers as attorney general have found it more difficult to win public recognition.
The winner in the May Democratic primary between Greg Macpherson and John Kroger will emerge to replace Myers, who is retiring after 12 years as the state’s top law enforcement officer. No Republicans filed for the office.
Macpherson, 57, a Lake Oswego resident, has served as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives for three terms, representing District 38. He is also an attorney in private practice for Stole Rives, the state’s largest private law firm.
Kroger, 41, is a former federal prosecutor who went after Mafia figures and Enron executives in New York and Texas. He came to Oregon in 2002.
The winner in the May Democratic primary between Greg Macpherson and John Kroger will emerge to replace Myers, who is retiring after 12 years as the state’s top law enforcement officer. No Republicans filed for the office.
Macpherson, 57, a Lake Oswego resident, has served as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives for three terms, representing District 38. He is also an attorney in private practice for Stole Rives, the state’s largest private law firm.
Kroger, 41, is a former federal prosecutor who went after Mafia figures and Enron executives in New York and Texas. He came to Oregon in 2002.
Macpherson came to Roseburg last week and spoke with The News-Review’s editorial board. If elected, he said he would attack consumer fraud and look at more stringent enforcement of the state’s environmental laws. He said he would also be an advocate for protecting Oregonians’ civil liberties and would look to shape public safety issues.
“Each of those is important in its own way, but I do think that consumer protection is a very important function of the attorney general’s office and not as well appreciated by people now as it should be,” Macpherson said.
Macpherson, whose father and grandfather also served in the Oregon Legislature, said computer fraud is a growing problem and local law enforcement agencies lack the resources to spend much time and effort investigating those crimes. He said states should band together, as they have in going after the tobacco industry and other prosecutions, to fight that kind of crime.
“I’m convinced that I could have more impact as one attorney general than I can as one voice among 90 in the Oregon Legislature,” said Macpherson, who grew up in Albany and graduated from Harvard University and Georgetown Law School.
Macpherson, whose legal clients include Roseburg Forest Products, helped work on reforms to the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System. He said the state now has one of the best funded public employee retirement systems in the country.
“It has turned the system around. The PERS system was fully funded as of the end of last year, which is the result of our reforms and some good market returns. It wouldn’t have happened without some very positive action by the Legislature,” Macpherson said.
In recent years, the state has not provided enough money to the Department of Environmental Quality to adequately investigate environmental concerns, he said. The DEQ relies on attorneys from the state Department of Justice to provide legal work on cases.
“We need more energetic enforcement of our environmental laws and we need what I would characterize as graduated responses,” Macpherson said.
He said most companies are good corporate citizens and that he would push for voluntary compliance and use criminal prosecution only as a last resort.
Macpherson said he fully supports Oregon’s Open Meetings Law and Public Records Law. He said it’s important that the state’s business be done in the open.
“The best form of disinfectant is an energetic, watchdog press that looks at what is going on,” he said.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
“Each of those is important in its own way, but I do think that consumer protection is a very important function of the attorney general’s office and not as well appreciated by people now as it should be,” Macpherson said.
Macpherson, whose father and grandfather also served in the Oregon Legislature, said computer fraud is a growing problem and local law enforcement agencies lack the resources to spend much time and effort investigating those crimes. He said states should band together, as they have in going after the tobacco industry and other prosecutions, to fight that kind of crime.
“I’m convinced that I could have more impact as one attorney general than I can as one voice among 90 in the Oregon Legislature,” said Macpherson, who grew up in Albany and graduated from Harvard University and Georgetown Law School.
Macpherson, whose legal clients include Roseburg Forest Products, helped work on reforms to the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System. He said the state now has one of the best funded public employee retirement systems in the country.
“It has turned the system around. The PERS system was fully funded as of the end of last year, which is the result of our reforms and some good market returns. It wouldn’t have happened without some very positive action by the Legislature,” Macpherson said.
In recent years, the state has not provided enough money to the Department of Environmental Quality to adequately investigate environmental concerns, he said. The DEQ relies on attorneys from the state Department of Justice to provide legal work on cases.
“We need more energetic enforcement of our environmental laws and we need what I would characterize as graduated responses,” Macpherson said.
He said most companies are good corporate citizens and that he would push for voluntary compliance and use criminal prosecution only as a last resort.
Macpherson said he fully supports Oregon’s Open Meetings Law and Public Records Law. He said it’s important that the state’s business be done in the open.
“The best form of disinfectant is an energetic, watchdog press that looks at what is going on,” he said.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
