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Former State Sen. Warren Tolman announces run for Mass. AG on FOX 25

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com/AP) - Former state Sen. Warren Tolman announced plans to run for Massachusetts attorney general on the FOX 25 Morning News Thursday.

Tolman made the announcement during the "Tolman and Gray" segment that regularly appears in on the FOX 25 Morning News.

Tolman, the 1998 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor and a 2002 candidate for governor, previously told The Associated Press he would formally announce his candidacy on Thursday.

Tolman said if elected he would focus on a range of issues including civil rights, consumer and business protections and pocketbook issues like the soaring costs of college tuition.

"I look at the attorney general's office as a tremendous opportunity to have an impact on a wide area of issues that have frankly been my life's work," Tolman said.

The 54-year-old Watertown resident is currently an attorney with the Boston law firm of Holland & Knight where he works in the firm's government and real estate departments.

In 1998 Tolman ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Harshbarger. He also served two terms in both the Massachusetts House and Senate. While in the Legislature, Tolman pushed for a law requiring tobacco companies to disclose the ingredients in their products.

Four years later after running with Harshbarger, himself a former attorney general, Tolman ran for governor under the state's old "clean elections" law which provided public funding for candidates who agreed to campaign fundraising limits.

Tolman lost the Democratic primary to former state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, who lost the general election to Republican Mitt Romney. Tolman said he learned important lessons from both campaigns.

Even though he hasn't run for office in over a decade, Tolman has also been a regular political commentator on television and radio during the intervening years.

"I feel pretty comfortable that I'll have the resources to get my message out and I think my message will resonate," he said.
While in the Legislature, Tolman served as chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Committee on State Administration. He also served on the Banks and Banking Committee.

Tolman said running for attorney general also brings him full circle in his career. He said he spent two summers as an intern in the office of former Attorney General Francis Bellotti.

Tolman's brother, Steven Tolman, is president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and a former lawmaker.

Warren Tolman is the third Democrat to formally enter the race for the state's top law enforcement job.

Clinton state Rep. Harold Naughton, 53, and Maura Healey, a 42-year-old former top deputy for Attorney General Martha Coakley, are also vying for the post.

Coakley, currently in her second term, is running for governor, leaving an open race for the attorney general's office next year.

No Republicans have entered the running although Gloucester state Sen. Bruce Tarr, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and Peter Flaherty, a former prosecutor and adviser to Romney when he was governor, have been mentioned as possible candidates.