INDIANAPOLIS | Democrat Linda Pence kicked off her campaign for state attorney general Thursday by criticizing the current GOP administration for reaching across state lines for help in the civil racketeering case against former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick.

Outgoing Attorney General Steve Carter last year went to the Chicago office of Perkins Coie to enlist Patrick Collins, a former federal prosecutor who helped convict corrupt Illinois Gov. George Ryan. Indiana thus far has paid Collins $317,000 to assist in the attempt to hold East Chicago leaders responsible for $25 million in public money diverted to a 1999 sidewalks-for-votes scheme.

"When I'm attorney general, I would review that file extensively," Pence said. "I'd review that case to see how much money the state has paid for lawyers to represent them. And I would also question why they needed lawyers out of state when we should have very capable lawyers in the attorney general's office itself."

Carter, who launched the racketeering suit four years ago, has said he hopes to see it go to trial before he leaves office in January. His office defended its hiring of Collins, who signed on at a discounted rate of $395 an hour.

"Patrick Collins came highly recommended by the foremost authority on the country's RICO laws, Notre Dame professor G. Robert Blakey," Staci Schneider, a Carter spokeswoman, said Thursday. "It is not unusual for outside counsel to be utilized for complex cases such as the White River fish kill, which has become of interest in these past few weeks."

The late Gov. Frank O'Bannon, a Democrat, hired Pence to lead a state civil suit against a company responsible for White River pollution that killed 5 million fish in 1999. Pence touted the more than $10 million settlement she helped secure on Thursday, saying, "I have punished polluters."

Pence also pledged to pursue public corruption but said she would need to examine the East Chicago case before pledging to continue that fight.