The campaign is dominated by three Capitol veterans, but a former San Diego congresswoman and an Orange County prosecutor have joined the field to make what promises to be an intense contest. None of the candidates has decisive name recognition among voters, which means that the race is all but certain to be decided simply by who spends the most on television advertising. The key to that is fundraising.

Perhaps the best known statewide is liberal Hayward Democrat Bill Lockyer, the former president pro tem of the state Senate who until he stepped down was the second-most powerful state official in California after the governor. His name is recognized by perhaps one in three registered voters, but how that will play on Election Day is uncertain.

His chief rival from the Senate is Montebello Democrat Charles Calderon, the former chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a Democratic Caucus leader. Calderon, who like Lockyer is forced to leave the Senate by voter-approved term limits, has been influential for years within the Capitol, but he is little known outside his district.

The third Democrat is Lynn Schenk, a former member of Congress and a member of former Gov. Jerry Brown's cabinet. Although slightly better known than Calderon, Schenk has little statewide name recognition.

All three Democratic contenders enjoy a positive image among voters, but that is not unusual early in the race when the candidates are little known; the negatives begin building after the front-runners start lobbing negative ads at one another.

On the Republican side, the contest promises to be a heated one. The favorite of the GOP is clearly David Stirling, a former assemblyman and general counsel for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board who served several years as Lungren's top deputy. Lungren, like most mainstream Republicans, appear to regard Stirling as Lungren's heir apparent.

But facing Stirling is a candidate many Republicans consider a renegade -- Orange County District Attorney Michael Capizzi. It was Capizzi who pushed through the prosecution of Republican Assemblyman Scott Baugh on election-fraud charges and incurred the undying wrath of the GOP in the process.

In name recognition, Capizzi enjoys a slightly higher level than Stirling. But that is certainly attributable to Capizzi's high-profile handling of the Baugh case -- his critics accused him of deliberately playing politics -- and as the June 2 primary nears Stirling's numbers are likely to rise.

Barring a scandal, the campaigns for attorney general draw scant public attention. But they, like the contests for the other down-ticket constitutional officers, are important because they generally reflect at least part of the lineup for future governor's races.

Whoever wins the attorney general's race is all but certain to run for governor when the timing is right. Just ask Pat Brown, George Deukmejian, John Van de Kamp and Dan Lungren.

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