When it comes to competence and honesty, few of our state's public servants can match Attorney General Gary King. As a state representative, then as our state's leading law enforcer, he has a well-earned reputation for holding himself and other officeholders — especially his fellow Democrats — to statutory and common-sense standards of performance and integrity.

Long before a rash of scandals broke over New Mexico's Public Regulation Commission, then-Rep King called for strict limits on contributions to commissioners' campaigns, and a ban on gifts to those worthies.

During nearly four years as attorney general, he's proven to be an excellent watchdog on behalf of our state's consumers against hordes of scam artists — individual and corporate.

He's hard at work investigating, among others, the present secretary of state and her predecessor, as well as a former housing-authority director and a current public-regulation commissioner — Democrats all.

King also has set up a governmental accountability division to deal with corruption.

He's also a bear on domestic violence, and on Internet crimes against children.

High among his attributes are patience — and insistence on analyzing cases instead of flying off the handle. For all the political/publicity stunts staged by many of his counterparts nationwide, King's unflappability serves New Mexico far better.

The New Mexican recommends a second term for Gary King.