BILLINGS -- Rattling off reasons a Helena Democrat might kick off his campaign for attorney general in GOP-friendly Billings, Steve Bullock let the numbers do the talking.

One in 7: The number of Montana legal cases filed in Yellowstone County. One out of 10: The ratio of Montana school students attending Billings schools. Number of felony charges filed in Yellowstone County annually: 1,000-plus.

The stat he didn't mention was the number of votes cast in Yellowstone County in the last statewide election -- 1 in 8.

Five candidates are vying to be Montana's next attorney general. None has home-field advantage in Yellowstone County, which historically has the state's largest bank of voters.

And there's no incumbent. Term limits are forcing two-term Attorney General Mike McGrath from office after eight years.

"At the moment, I think (the race) is wide open," said Craig Wilson, a political science professor at Montana State University Billings. "Until the time of the primary, these guys going for attorney general are going to be struggling for name identification."

Bullock might be most recognizable to voters as director of Raise Montana, the group behind an initiative to raise the minimum wage in 2007. The other Democrats who have announced their candidacy are House Minority Leader John Parker of Great Falls and former Sen. Mike Wheat of Bozeman. The Republicans vying for the nomination are Lee Bruner of Butte and Tim Fox of Helena.

In an announcement speech more than three pages long, Bullock, 41, pressed many of Eastern Montana's hot-button issues.

A former assistant attorney general under Joe Mazurek, Bullock said the state crime lab in Missoula could serve Yellowstone County prosecutors better by processing evidence more quickly. He touched on Montana's barbed battle with Wyoming over water salted by coalbed methane drilling in Wyoming. Both water quality and quantity have Montana ranchers concerned along the Wyoming border, where the Powder and Tongue rivers meander between the two states.

Bullock also touched on public stream access.

In 2000, as an assistant to the attorney general, Bullock authored the Justice Department's official opinion that the public could access rivers by using bridge right-of-ways along public highways. The subject still raises the hackles of anglers and landowners nearly a decade later.

Prior to his announcement, Bullock said he sides with other Montana officials in opposing the federal Real ID Act, which mandates that states begin issuing national identity cards. The law gives states a chance to bring driver's licenses into conformity with national identity card standards. Residents of states not complying wouldn't be able to use their driver's licenses as identification for boarding commercial airplanes. Licensing drivers in Montana is overseen by the attorney general.

The act could prove a hindrance to daily life, Bullock said.

"Especially in states like Montana where for many going to Canada is a daily or weekly occurrence," he said.

Closer to town, he promised to bolster the number of justice officials investigating e-mail fraud and identity theft, much of the latter occurring online. While dozens of officers patrol the interstate highways, only two justice officials investigate crime on the Internet highway, he said. He proposed publishing a regularly updated Internet scam list on the Justice Department's Web site.