CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- During a Monday appearance before Gazette editors, Republican attorney general candidate Dan Greear said if elected, he would seek legislation spelling out when and how outside legal counsel should be hired by the attorney general's office.

"Right now, there's no transparency, no public input in hiring outside attorneys," said Greear. "No legal justification is needed to hire them, and political donors often seem to be the attorneys who are hired."

Greear, 39, who edged out Hiram Lewis to win the Republican nomination, said it should also be up to the Legislature, not the attorney general's office, to decide how funds from class-action settlements are distributed.

Democrat Darrell McGraw responded that the selection of outside attorneys made during his 16 years as attorney general has been instrumental in bringing in $2 billion from those who violate state consumer protection and antitrust laws.

"That works out to about $1,000 for every man, woman and child in West Virginia, at no cost to the taxpayer," he said.

McGraw added that 99.7 percent of the $2 billion in settlement funds received during his term has gone to the Legislature. "We helped balance the budget to the tune of $37 million in 2000, $28 million in 2001 and $33 million in 2003," he said.

Greear criticized McGraw's handling of a $10 million settlement his office won in 2004 from Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, which was alleged to be addictive.

"That money was not sent back to the Legislature," Greear said. As a consequence, he said, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services is withholding from the state Department of Health and Human Services $4 million that the federal agency expected DHHR to collect from the settlement.

McGraw said a federal appeals board recently ruled that the amount being withheld by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services was unreasonable, and sent the matter back to the CMMS to negotiate with the state agency.

McGraw also said that the judge in the OxyContin case wanted the settlement funds to go back to the communities involved, and that Purdue Pharma officials "wanted the public-relations benefits" of the settlement payout being used that way. He said he signed a court order requiring that the settlement funds be used to treat addiction in the counties where the drug caused the most problems.

"Through the OxyContin settlement, West Virginia now has 49 active day-report programs allowing nonviolent offenders to work and get tested for drug use," McGraw said. Settlement funds are also used to pay for expenses at drug and alcohol halfway houses, domestic violence shelters and after-school programs.

In another matter, Greear accused McGraw of using his office for political gain by using state money to pay for trinkets bearing his name being handed out at state fairs and festivals. Greear said he had found handouts with McGraw's name being dispensed at Democratic Party booths at county fairs in Putnam and Jackson counties, and at the state fair.

McGraw countered that the freebies are used to publicize the attorney general's consumer protection division and its toll-free number. "If people come to our booth and take these items elsewhere to distribute, we're glad to let them do it."

Funds for the trinkets come from a public-education fund from the consumer-protection division, he said.

Greear said he wouldn't object to the handouts if McGraw left his name off them.

Greear said he has been unsuccessful in repeated efforts to arrange a public debate with McGraw.

"This may be the first and only forum where my opponent and I appear together," he said. "Since we have very different views on the office and how it should be run, I think the public would benefit from more appearances like this."

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 348-5169.