An East Valley attorney who has filed as a Republican for attorney general says Democrat Attorney General Terry Goddard is ignoring the state’s high crime rates and is eyeing a run for governor in 2010.

William “Bill” Montgomery said there is a “persistent crime problem in Arizona, but this AG is more concerned about a future run for governor.”

Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goddard declined to comment.

Arizona ranked first among the states in the rate of serious crime in 2003, according to the most recent annual reports from the FBI. The state had 6,146 violent and property crimes combined per 100,000 population that year and ranked 13th in violent crime.

State by state breakdowns for the first six months of 2004 were not available from the bureau, but a preliminary report showed Phoenix and Tucson with slight increases in violent and property crimes compared with the first six months of 2003.

Mr. Montgomery, a West Point graduate and veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, also said that Mr. Goddard has failed to show leadership against illegal immigration and has not represented “the will of the voters” who passed Prop. 200, a measure denying certain public benefits to illegal immigrants.

Mr. Montgomery came to Arizona with his family in 1998 and is a graduate of the ASU College of Law. He has prosecutorial experience with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the AG’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office and has a law firm in Gilbert.

Ms. Montgomery, who describes himself as a “principled conservative,” said he will run as a publicly funded candidate. —