Take a conservative lawyer well acquainted with politics, the law and administering a government agency.

Add a political atmosphere in which Republican state lawmakers are more than willing to push a long-suppressed conservative agenda, even if it stretches previously accepted limits of state government’s power.

Mix in a successful – and desirable – public relations effort to keep Hoosiers informed about what their attorney general is doing.

The final touch: A likable personality with a sense of humor and just a slight southern Indiana drawl – the epitome of the kind of person you would vote for because he’s the candidate you’d want to have a beer with.

The result is an Indiana attorney general who has become not only one of the most visible and active in the state’s history but perhaps the state’s most important official after the governor.

In the news

Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office has been particularly busy this year, fighting challenges to school vouchers, the state’s cutting off Planned Parenthood funding, new limits on immigrants, a new statewide teachers’ contract and more.

In addition to those cases – in which he is legally obligated to defend state government – Zoeller, a Republican, previously jumped into the legal fight over the national health care law that split clearly on partisan lines. Similarly, his office supported American Electric Power’s efforts to fight lawsuits accusing energy companies of contributing to global warming, and attorneys general in 22 states signed on. In that case, though, Zoeller was on the same side as the Obama administration.

More recently, Zoeller has begun efforts to determine how Indiana should fairly pay victims of the Indiana State Fair tragedy, a move that emphasizes fairness to victims but one that could also hold down the number of lawsuits and reinforce the state’s insistence it will pay no more than $5 million as a result of the stage collapse.

Zoeller, 56, believes one of his key roles is to protect people from their government, a main theme supporting his decision to join with 25 states in the health care lawsuit.

“I really saw it as, the federal government exercises their authority and who is there to challenge whether they’ve gone beyond the enumerated powers that they’re given?” he said. “It’s not that I disagreed that we need health care reform, but I do think that someone has to stand up and raise the question: Has Congress exceeded their constitutional authority?”

At the same time, Zoeller sees value when citizens challenge state government’s authority.

“The flip side of that, when I see these challenges to the state’s exercise of authority – Planned Parenthood, immigration, vouchers – this is a respectful challenge, and you won’t hear me complain about doing my job. The system of federalism, checks and balances and separation of powers, is all based on this ‘don’t trust government.’

“There should be a challenge to see if the state or federal government has exceeded their authority. I try to keep in mind this is a healthy process.”

The road to office

Growing up in New Albany in the 1960s, Zoeller attended a Catholic school, where leaders found that the boxing ring was an acceptable place to work out arguments between teenage boys – as long as they were equipped with well-padded gloves. It didn’t hurt that neighboring Louisville’s hometown hero was Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali).

Zoeller went on to box in Police Athletic League and Golden Gloves matches, and even now still works out with punching bags. “I am much better at the workout than I am at being a boxer,” he says.

He’s also self-effacing about his golf game, the sport that claims a distant cousin – Fuzzy Zoeller – as one of its greatest.

Zoeller attended Purdue University two years, then transferred to Indiana University, where he received first his undergraduate degree and then his law degree. After law school, Zoeller went to work for Sen. Dan Quayle, immersing himself in the historic public jobs program Quayle and Sen. Ted Kennedy were assembling. The Senate eventually voted 98-0 to adopt the Jobs Training Partnership Act.

Zoeller was an adviser during the senator’s 1986 re-election campaign, briefing Quayle on various issues and traveling to all 92 Indiana counties.

“That was actually a very good education, because I, frankly, was not enamored with politics,” Zoeller remembers.

During that campaign, and later as the state director overseeing Quayle’s four regional offices, he made contacts that paid off 22 years later when Zoeller ran for attorney general. After Quayle was elected vice president in 1988, Zoeller followed him back to Washington for two more years before setting up a civil law practice in Indianapolis.

When Steve Carter was elected attorney general in 2000, he named Zoeller his chief deputy. Carter decided not to run again in 2008, and Zoeller pulled an upset when delegates to the state GOP convention chose him as the nominee over Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas, the choice of Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Zoeller has not announced re-election plans for 2012 but drops a hint in saying, “Every good lawyer is prepared. I’ll be prepared” if he decides to run.

Running the office

The high-profile cases Zoeller oversees may receive the headlines, but the attorney general’s office does much more.

One of the most important duties is representing the state when convicted criminals file appeals, an area in which Zoeller rightly notes improvements. When he began as chief deputy in 2001, Zoeller said, the rate of the state's success in criminal appeals was about 80 percent. Now, the rate is 94 percent.

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards gives Zoeller high marks. “He’s done an excellent job as attorney general,” she said. “Anytime he has an initiative, we (county prosecutors) are always in the loop.”

When a local jury sentences a killer to death, the attorney general’s office supports that decision on appeal – even though Zoeller acknowledges “I’m not a proponent of the death penalty.” His personal belief is part of his Catholic faith and also reflects concern about whether county government finances result in unfair application of the death penalty, depending on in which county the case is heard.

Administering an office with 348 employees and a $23 million budget, Zoeller does not sit down and write briefs. But he is involved, particularly with some of the high-profile cases. After deciding which lawyer in his office will handle a particular case, “With the assignment comes my input,” Zoeller said. “When they’re drafting briefs, I may not have a whole lot of comment,” he said, but “sometimes there’s just parts that I really don’t want to argue that vigorously,” he said. “I don’t like to stand over them with a whip, but I don’t mind, from a publicly elected position, to pull back a little bit.”

High profile

Nor does Zoeller mind jumping into cases that he believes in.

While he is obligated to defend the state when it’s sued, he had no such requirement to join 25 attorneys general from other states to challenge the Obama health care law.

Zoeller says his decision was largely based on his belief in guarding against government overreach, but there was undoubtedly a political component involved as well. In addition, because his office had already conducted substantial research into the constitutionality of the health care law at the request of Sen. Richard Lugar, Zoeller was able to lend that research to the national case.

Critics might view that as politicizing an office more associated with justice than politics. “The job is not a political one, and some of the attorney general’s decisions definitely raise questions about his legal impartiality,” said Dan Parker, chairman of the state Democratic Party. “He needs to remain focused on the duties of his office, not on partisan political issues."

Still, the attorney general is elected on a partisan ballot and isn’t free of politics.

“It’s a political office, so you’re going to get the sensitivity to the political side of it,” said Karen Freeman-Wilson, a former Democratic state attorney general and now the party’s candidate for mayor of Gary. “It’s just the nature of some of the sensitive political issues. …

“I think Greg has made an effort to be bipartisan in the office,” she said.

David Long, the Republican president pro tem of the state Senate, does not believe Zoeller has overstepped his bounds – in fact, Long gives him credit for not overreaching. “He’s been respectful of what the attorney general’s office responsibilities are and aren’t,” Long said. As far as the health care law challenge, “there’s certainly a state’s rights element, and that’s an appropriate issue for the attorney general’s office to be involved in.”

Local political analyst Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at IPFW, believes Zoeller still benefits from the popular do-not-call legislation enacted when Carter was attorney general and Zoeller his chief deputy. Hoosiers continue to benefit from that law, and the attorney general’s office gets much of the credit.

His office is likely to earn more goodwill with Zoeller’s decision to try to direct some money to victims of the Indiana State Fair stage collapse without waiting for years of litigation. Zoeller asked the respected victims’ compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw funds that compensated victims of Sept. 11 and the BP oil spill, among others, to help decide how the state will administer the maximum of $5 million the law allows to be paid to victims of the accident that occurred on state property. Feinberg is providing his expertise at no cost to the state.

“Our objective is focused on the victims of this tragedy. They will not be required to hire a lawyer if they don’t wish to; they could apply for compensation directly through the claim managers who have expertise in treating victims in a professional, courteous manner,” Zoeller said. “We are expediting the process but must work through the necessary details. We are committed to implementing this settlement process with justice and compassion.”