effort to end the frequent "use it and lose it" practice of insurance companies, which often cancel policies after customers file just one claim.

The wealthy Poizner, running a largely self-financed campaign, has never even considered taking insurance company donations like those that started the disgraced former Republican Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush on the path to self-destruction.

Most Poochigian radio and TV commercials attempt to lampoon Brown as a pro-criminal flake responsible for increased crime in Oakland. The front-running Brown counters by painting the conservative Poochigian as certain to make hash of this state's gun-control laws.

But neither candidate pays much attention to the consumer issues that any attorney general can greatly influence. Lockyer has investigated electric and natural gas companies, helping California win $6 billion in refunds for gross - sometimes criminal - overcharges during the energy crunch of 2000-2001. He has participated in multi-state lawsuits leading to important reforms in corporate governance.

These were not areas of great interest under his predecessor, conservative Republican Dan Lungren, now a Northern California congressman. In short, attorneys general are generally free to pursue areas that interest them and virtually ignore those that don't. As neither current candidate shows much interest so far in consumerism, the entire vital subject may be placed on the back burner or worse.

It's the kind of thing that can happen when primary elections are decided mostly by name recognition (Brown and Bustamante), ideology (Poochigian) and cash (Poizner).

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