AG'S OFFICE NOT STATE'S MAIN CRIME FIGHTER

AUSTIN -- Indulge yourself for a few moments and imagine the impossible --
a world without crime. For most people, it would be a dream.

But, believe it or not, it would be a nightmare for others, and I don't
just mean the predators and career felons who derive pleasure from hurting
others.

A world without crime would be a world in which countless political
candidates, like so many lost souls, would wander city streets and country
roads, hopelessly in search of an issue, some reason to convince voters to
vote for them.

More candidates have probably been elected to public office in Texas by
knocking crime than bad-mouthing anything else, even taxes.

The result is Texas has some of the toughest anti-crime laws in the
universe. Crime, overall, also has been dropping here. And although it's
not clear that all the credit belongs to the tough laws, they certainly
have helped.

Any politician worth his or her filing fee, however, will tell you that
there is always more that government should do. So the crimebusters have
hit the campaign trail again.

Leading the pack in statewide races is Railroad Commissioner Barry
Williamson, one of three candidates in a hotly contested race for the
Republican nomination for attorney general.

This office, for many years now, has generated a lot of law-and- order
rhetoric, despite the fact that its responsibilities are primarily civil.

Unlike the U.S. attorney general and attorneys general in some other
states, the Texas attorney general has only limited anti- crime
jurisdiction. The office represents the state in death penalty appeals,
prosecutes cases of Medicaid fraud and helps local prosecutors in other
cases, if they request assistance.

Most criminals in Texas are prosecuted by locally elected district attorneys.

Under the Texas Constitution and state law, the Texas attorney general is
supposed to spend most of his or her time collecting delinquent child
support payments; giving legal advice to the Legislature, the governor and
state agencies; representing the state in lawsuits; and enforcing civil
laws governing nursing homes, environmental standards and consumer
protection.

But except for child support, which is always a hot-button topic, most of
those responsibilities don't have much political sex appeal. So candidates
running for the office -- and even those who have been elected to it --
often try to reinvent it.

That's why Mark White, in a memorable television spot, slammed a jail door
shut during his 1978 campaign for attorney general. He won and used the
office as a springboard to the Governor's Mansion.

That's why Attorney General Dan Morales -- before making the tobacco
industry Public Enemy No. 1 -- worked hard to develop an anti-crime image
for the office.

And that's why Williamson decorated the cover of a slick campaign brochure
with the quotation -- superimposed over his photo -- "Texas' attorney
general has the authority and the moral obligation to lead the fight
against crime."

He may soon begin repeating that message in TV commercials.

Although the details aren't as important, politically, as the overall
anti-crime theme, Williamson is zeroing in on particularly troublesome
areas. He wants the attorney general's office to help local officials crack
down on gangs, and he proposes a tougher fight against drug trafficking
along the border.

He also wants to assist local communities in fighting sexual assault and
child abuse.

The other two Republican candidates for attorney general, Tom Pauken and
John Cornyn, also have addressed the crime issue but, unlike Williamson,
haven't made it the heart of their campaigns.

Pauken, a former state GOP chairman, wants to do more than crack down on
drug traffickers. He wants to convene a statewide conference focusing on
drug abuse education and prevention as well as enforcement. Pauken also has
made a high priority of ending all federal court oversight of the state
prison system.

Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, has promised to assist local
prosecutors in complex investigations, work to prevent unnecessary delays
in death penalty cases and help more young children avoid poverty -- and
possible lives of crime -- by strengthening child-support enforcement.

When it comes to fighting crime, every little bit can help, and polls
indicate an anti-crime stance is popular with the public. But the next
attorney general, whoever he may be, won't be the state's No. 1
crime-fighter. The office isn't equipped for him to be.