Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto tours the Culinary Training Center at Nevada Partners after announcing her candidacy for state attorney general Tuesday. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Catherine Cortez Masto formally launched her campaign for attorney general Tuesday, pledging to focus on integrity of taxpayer funds and the ongoing fight against the Yucca Mountain Project.

Cortez Masto, a former assistant U.S. attorney and lifelong Nevadan, kicked off her campaign by news release, forgoing the tradition of an announcement speech in front of supporters.

A Democrat with notable family political lines, she will take on newly appointed Attorney General George Chanos, a Republican, in next year's election.

No one else has announced for the office.

"My credentials are some of the best for this position," Cortez Masto said. "Everything I've done in my career, from general civil litigation to management in the top level of state government, has prepared me."

Cortez Masto, 41, is the daughter of Manny Cortez, former chairman of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and a former Clark County commissioner. She was a chief of staff to former Gov. Bob Miller in 1998, his final year in office, and has recently worked as assistant county manager in Clark County.

Cortez Masto has been aggressively raising money since she resigned that post to focus on the race in August.

"It's been very, very positive," Cortez Masto said, declining to announce what she has raised, except to say that she intends to meet her goal for what she believes will be a $1 million race.

Cortez Masto spent part of the day Tuesday touring the Culinary Training Center at Nevada Partners and meeting with black and Latino community leaders.

In an interview, Cortez Masto said she would have handled differently the recent controversy regarding golf course developer Bill Walters' land deal before the Las Vegas City Council.

Chanos, just days into office, announced he was launching an investigation into the city's vote earlier this month to lift a deed restriction that had prevented Walters from building homes on Royal Links Golf Club land.

Chanos subsequently entered into a $10,000 contract with a special prosecutor, and is seeking additional state funds for the cost of the investigation, to avoid the perception of a conflict since he has a separate land issue coming before the council.

Cortez Masto said she agrees the public is entitled to know the facts about what happened and how their elected officials are making decisions.

"But, personally, I would have handled it differently," she said. "Before you take a case, you always look to see if there are any real or perceived conflicts."

Cortez Masto said she would have talked to both Sheriff Bill Young and District Attorney David Roger about their past investigations into the matter to avoid duplication or to learn additional facts.

Chanos has said his office will look into past investigations, but felt he needed to announce his investigation Nov. 15 because the council was set to again vote on the issue. The original vote in the Royal Links matter was overturned by the council Nov. 16.

Cortez Masto got her bachelor's degree from the University of Nevada, Reno and graduated from Gonzaga University Law School in 1990.

After her work in the Miller administration, she was named an assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in 2000, where she was responsible for general felonies such as drug trafficking and weapons offenses.

As a result of that work, Cortez Masto said she wants to elevate prosecution of methamphetamine production and identity theft in the attorney general's office.

"Nevada is second in the nation in cases of identity theft," she said. "It carries a $52 billion cost nationwide, the majority of that to businesses. The attorney general's office can fill in the gaps to prosecute these cases."

Cortez Masto said the federal government won't prosecute cases in which the victim has lost less than $10,000.