Do The State Attorney Generals Really Care?

While nobody would ever accuse New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer of not believing in his crusade to clean up our financial markets, you have to question the new found zeal of the me-too Attorney Generals. Andrew Caffrey of the Boston Globe Globe writes today about the fight between Massachusett's State Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and Secretary of State William F. Galvin for a piece of the mutual fund probes. Both are running for govenor.

Caffrey also notes that the

California legislature recently gave its attorney general equal jurisdiction with that state's securities regulators to investigate abuses in the mutual fund and securities industries. Last Friday, one day after winning that authority, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he was investigating whether three prominent California mutual fund companies defrauded investors by failing to disclose fees they paid to brokerage firms to push their investment funds.

No surprise that Lockyer just mailed me a letter touting that he is ahead of all other democrats in his quest to run for govenor. Of course, he will be running against the man he so publicly proclaimed he voted for...Arnold Schwartzeneger.

So, the question is, do these guys really care? If they were not running for govenor, would they be pursuing these sources of campaign contributions. What happens when the corporations start offering to contribute to their campaigns? Why are the Republican AG's sitting on the sidelines?