The Democratic challenger to Attorney General Luther Strange accuses him of being an absentee officeholder more interested in cracking down on bingo than violent crime.
Strange says his opponent, Democrat Joe Hubbard, has a campaign largely financed by gambling interests.
During a speech Thursday in Orange Beach, Hubbard criticized Strange's efforts to shut down electronic bingo casinos in the state's long-running legal wars over the slot machine look-alikes. Hubbard said the casino customers aren't a threat to the state, and Strange is wasting resources. Hubbard said he will make fighting violent crime and corruption his priority.
Strange, responding by telephone, said his job is to enforce existing state gambling laws. He questioned Hubbard's impartiality on gambling. Campaign records show that the Poarch Creek Indians have given Hubbard's campaign $1 million.