PHOENIX -- Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard on Friday formally created a committee to explore entering the 2010 race for governor, a contest in which he's already regarded as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Goddard made the move one day after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer announced she will run for a full term as governor. Brewer became governor in January when Democrat Janet Napolitano resigned to become U.S. homeland security secretary.
Goddard said in a statement he is deeply concerned about the state's future and believes Arizona must "have new leadership and a new direction."
Arizona's resign-to-run law bars state elected officials from formally declaring candidacies for other offices before the last year of their current term terms. That means Goddard could formally declare his candidacy for governor in January.
He previously said he intended to run for governor, but his filing Friday was his first formal action. The state Republican Party's chairman in September asked Goddard's office to investigate whether Goddard had violated the resign-to-run law.
Goddard's office called the complaint a political stunt and referred it and several involving Democratic and Republican legislators to the Pima County Attorney's office, which said Friday that the complaints remained under review.
No Democrat has formally filed to enter the governor's race, but Goddard has been regarded as the favorite for his party's 2010 nomination since real-estate developer Jim Pederson announced in June he would not run. Pederson was the party's unsuccessful nominee in 2006 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Jon Kyl.
Goddard, a former Phoenix mayor, was elected attorney general in 2002 and re-elected in 2006.
He ran unsuccessfully for governor twice, losing to Republican Fife Symington in a 1991 runoff to the 1990 contest and placing second in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination in 1994.
