Attorney General office comparison
From Ballotpedia - Reading time: 4 min
The attorney general position exists in all 50 U.S. states but is only elected in 43. The primary job of a state attorney general is to serve as chief legal adviser to the agencies and legislative bodies that make up his or her state's government, in addition to the citizens residing within the state.
Nearly every state's attorney general serves as chief legal adviser for the state government and is empowered to prosecute violations of state law, represent the state in legal disputes, and issue legal advice to state agencies and the legislature. Attorneys general often set particular law enforcement priorities (e.g. drug law, civil rights violations, or sexual crime) and focus extra resources on these issues.
This page compares the office from state to state, examining similarities and differences such as how they win office, term limits, authority, salary, and duties.
Current officeholders[edit]
Political parties[edit]
The chart below is a breakdown of the political parties pertaining to the state executive office of attorney general. For other state executive offices, click here.
| Office |  Democratic
|
 Republican
|
 Independent
|
Nonpartisan | Total seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney General | 23 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Counts current as of October 2022. If you see an error, please email us. | |||||
List of Current Attorneys General[edit]
Note: If an office becomes vacant, it will appear in a separate table below the list of current officeholders.
List of All Current State Attorneys General in the United States:
There are no vacancies at this time.
Salaries by state[edit]
The following table lists the salary reported for each state's attorney general in the Book of the States going back to 2020. Darker shades of grey indicate higher salaries. To rank states by attorney general salary for a given year, click the header for that year.
About the office[edit]
Elected vs. Appointed[edit]
Attorneys general are chosen in four different ways; they are either popularly elected or appointed by the governor, the state legislature, or the state supreme court. The office is elective in 43 states and chosen by a state government body in seven.[1]
The attorney general is appointed by the governor in five states: Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Wyoming.
In Maine, the attorney general is chosen by the state legislature, while in Tennessee the choice falls to the state supreme court.
Term Limits[edit]
- See also: State executives with term limits
Of the 50 attorneys general, 26 do not have a formal provision specifying the number of terms allowed. Of the 43 elected attorneys general, all serve four-year terms with the exception of Maine, Tennessee, and Vermont. Maine and Vermont attorneys general serve two-year terms and Tennessee's attorney general serves an eight-year term.[1]
- 12 attorneys general have a two-term limit, otherwise unspecified.
- 2, New Mexico and South Dakota, are limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms, after which they must wait four years and/or one full term before being eligible again.
- 1, Montana, is limited to two terms (eight years) in any 16-year span.
- 1, Maine, can serve a maximum of four terms, each term is two years in length
- 1, Tennessee, is appointed by the state Supreme Court to serve a term of eight years.
- 1, Virginia, has a provision specifying an individual can serve as attorney general for an unlimited number of terms.
Qualifications[edit]
Qualifications for the office of attorney general vary widely from state to state.
Minimum age
35 states have a formal provision specifying minimum age, while 15 have no formal provision.[2]
Of the 35 states:
- 7 designate an officeholder must be at least 30 years of age. (FL, ID, KY, NM, NY, PA, and VA)
- 10 states require a minimum age of 25. (AL, AZ, GA, IL, LA, MT, NV, ND, UT, and WV)
- 13 states require a minimum age of 18. (AK, CA, CT, IA, MA, MI, NJ, OH, OR, RI, SD, VT, and WA)
- 2, Minnesota and North Carolina, set the limit at 21.
- 1, Oklahoma, sets the limit at 31.
- 1, Colorado, sets the limit at 27.
- 1, Mississippi, sets the limit at 26.
State Citizen
43 states have a formal provision stating an attorney general must be a state resident, while seven do not have a formal provision. Of the 43 states, 25 specify the number of years and 18 do not.[2]
States that specify the number of years as a state resident:
- 30 days - Minnesota and South Carolina
- 1 year - Hawaii, Missouri, Texas, and Virginia
- 2 years - Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, and Nevada
- 3 years - Illinois
- 4 years - Georgia
- 5 years - Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia
- 7 years - Florida
U.S. citizen
40 states have a formal provision stating an attorney general must be a United States citizen, while 10 do not have a formal provision. Of the 40 states, five states specify the number of years and 35 do not.[2]
States that specify number of years as a United States citizen:
Qualified Voter
Thirty states have a formal provision stating an attorney general must be a qualified voter, while 20 do not have a formal provision. Of the 30 states, only one state, Oklahoma, specifies the number of years and 29 do not.[2]
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Juris Doctor States that do not require a law degree:
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Duties[edit]
Notable exceptions[edit]
Criminal Appeals[edit]
The attorney general has the power to represent the state in criminal appeals in 46 states, although this power is restricted in five of those states.[3]
Local prosecutions[edit]
A common duty of state attorneys general is intervening in local prosecutions. Most AGs can intervene in local prosecutions to which the state is not a party, though the authority is often limited to certain circumstances. In October 2013, the Attorney General of Missouri did not have the authority to re-initiate a criminal prosecution against an individual whose charges were already dropped by a county judge, despite pleas from his constituents to intervene. In Missouri, the authority to file criminal charges in local jurisdictions falls exclusively with local prosecutors, and the state AG can only intervene "under certain statutes and for specific crimes." Meanwhile, attorneys general in Alaska, Delaware, and Rhode Island, for example, do not operate under these constraints.[4][5]
- 21 state AGs can initiate local prosecutions of entirely of their own accord
- 14 states can supersede local prosecutors of their own initiative
- 11 states—Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia—have no authority to intervene in local prosecutions.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Issuu, "The Book of the States, Table 4.19 - The Attorneys General, 2021," accessed September 22, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Issuu, "The Book of the States, Table 4.20 - Attorneys General: Qualifications for Office," accessed September 22, 2022
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedpowers - ↑ ConnectTristates.com, "Missouri Attorney General has limited prosecution powers," October 21, 2013
- ↑ Issuu, "The Book of the States, Table 4.21 - Attorneys General: Prosecutorial and Advisory Duties," accessed September 22, 2022
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