Democratic attorney general candidate Reed Richards said the state's largest group of lawyers is sound, independent and passionate about defending the rights of all Utahns, while Republican Mark Shurtleff contends employees are suffering from low morale and high turnover.

For the first time in the race, the two leading candidates to replace Democrat Jan Graham squared off in a testy debate that centered on the future of the Attorney General's Office.

There has been way too much politicization of that office over the last eight years, said Shurtleff, a Salt Lake County commissioner, who has criticized the way Graham and her chief deputy, Richards, have used the office as a bully pulpit to lobby for tobacco litigation and against failed efforts by the Utah Legislature to strip the office of its authority to bring civil litigation.

We need to get back to serving our constituents, said Shurtleff, who promised to improve relations between the attorney general, the governor and Legislature.

Richards said the attorney general must have the authority and the backbone to stand up to giant corporations. A Shurtleff administration would have never joined the states' tobacco lawsuit that brought nearly $1 billion to Utah, he said. The lawsuit included a settlement that bars tobacco companies from advertising their products to children and youths.

These types of companies need to be made to change, Richards said. That is really the core job of the attorney general -- to right the wrongs that have been done to the people [of Utah] criminally or civilly.

But the tobacco lawsuit is a prime example of the state's top attorney trying to legislate and regulate by litigation, Shurtleff countered, adding the tactic goes way beyond constitutional authority. He also criticized efforts by the attorney general to reduce crime, pointing to Utah's high number of methamphetamine labs.

In response, Richards detailed his work on legislation that regulated the sale of chemicals used to make methamphetamine, which he suggested has helped decrease the number of labs operating in the state. Richards also stressed his efforts to establish Children's Justice Centers and his role in forming one of the state's first gang task forces.

I don't have to say these are things I want to do, these are things I have done, Richards said.

The debate, sponsored by the Salt Lake County Bar Association and conducted in downtown Salt Lake City, did not include Libertarian candidate W. Andrew McCullough, the only candidate to suggest the attorney general has not done enough to curb law enforcement threats to individual liberties.

Even without McCullough, who has proven a good foil to the more established candidates, Richards and Shurtleff eagerly mined their deep divisions. The key to the race is experience, Richards said.

The issue brought the sharpest exchange between the two. At one point, Shurtleff sparred with an attorney in the audience who questioned Shurtleff's record on criminal prosecutions.

Shurtleff said he has prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases in California as a prosecutor for the U.S. Navy, but acknowledged he has never done a criminal case in Utah. Then he turned to Richards -- a longtime prosecutor and defense attorney in Weber County -- and asked how many times have you been in a courtroom in the last eight years?