Letitia A. James for New York State attorney general

At least once a week and often two or three times, the Democratic attorneys general in 22 states meet by video call to coordinate lawsuits against the Trump administration. New York has been part of 65 of the more than 100 cases filed challenging everything from funding cuts for blue states to tariffs and immigration enforcement. Right now, their focus is on stopping any efforts by the president to upend the upcoming election.

This cooperative effort involving each state's top legal officer, which has often included some Republican attorneys generals, is rooted in their successful joint efforts against major corporations that harm consumers. The states have sued over data breaches and deceptive marketing, as in the case against Purdue Pharma for hiding the addictive nature of opioids. They have challenged mergers that concentrate market power in the media and entertainment, such as the successful case against Google for location tracking practices and the jury verdict against Live Nation over ticket prices.

New York State's Letitia A. James, 68, a Democrat from Brooklyn seeking her third term as attorney general, is a major player on those calls as the states have become an important legal check on federal power. Yet, the bulk of what her office's 700-odd attorneys do is routine defense work in lawsuits filed against the state and its employees. Its jurisdiction is primarily civil, and among James' best efforts have been recovering wages for gig workers who were shortchanged on earnings or tips. 

New York's 62 district attorneys, one for each county, are the primary enforcers of criminal law. The attorney general's criminal enforcement powers are limited to such areas as Medicaid fraud, where James has underperformed. Federal regulators cited the Medicaid fraud unit as failing to bring a sufficient number of cases, causing the suspension of the federal grant that funds her investigations team. 

Republican Saritha Komatireddy, 42, has a stellar resume of achievements and titles, including 12 years as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York. Her campaign is scrappy and aggressive and her sharp mind apparent. But she wants the attorney general to be a crime fighter focused on public safety. Komatireddy has a textbook of plans to remove mentally ill homeless individuals from the streets, enforce criminal laws on retail theft, and make the subways safer by prosecuting fare beaters. Prosecutors want to prosecute, but that's mostly the job of local prosecutors unless the governor orders the attorney general to take over a case from a DA, a very infrequent occurrence. 

Komatireddy, of Manhattan, seems to have little understanding of how to navigate the intricacies of state government and its politics to achieve her agenda. Homelessness, for example, is an intractable problem with many causes and the state has failed to remedy it. She wants to use money from New York's share of opioid settlements to build supportive housing and provide treatment. The instinct is good but it's not a problem to be solved quickly.

Disappointingly, Komatireddy's campaign says little about the powers the office does have over consumer protection and enforcing economic justice. And given that she earned her stripes in the Justice Department, it is discouraging that she could find no grounds, in her interview with the editorial board, on which to criticize the department's degradation under the Trump administration. In 2020, Trump nominated Komatireddy for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of New York which covers Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens but the Senate never acted to confirm her nomination. 

In 2022, we criticized James' tendency to personalize her fights, as she did in bringing a successful civil fraud case against Donald Trump in between his two presidential terms. After his reelection in 2024, his Justice Department retaliated, indicting James on charges that she misstated her residence on mortgage applications to get better loan terms. A judge dismissed the case after finding the prosecutor who brought it had been illegally appointed, and subsequently, two separate grand juries declined Justice Department efforts to revive it.

Now James is in the spotlight again. Gov. Kathy Hochul gave her office jurisdiction to determine whether criminal charges are warranted based on a female student's allegation that she was raped by seven men at a Cornell University fraternity. James is seeking an experienced former prosecutor with a deep understanding of sex crimes to lead the case. That's the right decision. Her office does not have the expertise to investigate and prosecute such a complex criminal matter. Unfortunately, in speaking out about it, she created an unnecessary controversy as she has at other times in the past.

Days before she was handed the case, James wrote on social media, "What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable." Now as she prepares to name outside counsel, lawyers for the accused men and her political adversaries say she prejudged the case. James said she was simply expressing support and empathy for a person who says she was the victim of a sex crime. It's another example of when James should have stayed quiet and let the work of the office stand on its merits.

As she seeks reelection, the issue is whether James' eight years in office have earned her the right to another term. They have. Her record has flaws. But the stakes are high and James is a skilled fighter. This moment calls for one. 

Newsday Opinion endorses James.