AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline)-Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky said Monday will officially file papers to run for Texas attorney general this week.

Radnofsky, a retired Houston attorney, said she will, among other things, "attack anticompetitive, profiteering and deceptive practices" in the insurance and electric utility industries and declare the margin tax unconstitutional.

The Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2006, vowed that if she is elected she would protect Texans from crimes whether committed online or in person.

Radnofsky lost the 2006 Senate race in a landslide to Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, who now holds the seat. Radnofsky is the first woman to have won the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas.

Radnofsky was at the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, where she was a defense and trial lawyer for 26 years. She retired as head of the firm's alternative dispute resolution section in 2006 to pursue her Senate campaign.

If Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott decides to seek a third term as the state's chief legal officer, Radnofsky could challenge him in next year's November general election.

She recently attracted a wave of national media attention for her assertion that a 2005 state constitutional amendment meant to ban same-sex marriages actually outlaws eliminates all nuptials in the Lone Star State.

The amendment states that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman," but it is Subsection B that Radnofsky said could be problematic.

It reads: "The state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

She said the clause "eliminates marriage in Texas," a claim Abbott's office has dismissed.

From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.