Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth chairs Gore's state campaign

(CNN) -- Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, 58, also holds a powerful position in Florida's Democratic Party: chairman of the state campaign to elect Vice President Al Gore as president.

Butterworth first gained national attention in the 1990s when he joined attorneys general of several other states in what was then a new legal strategy aimed at the U.S. tobacco industry.

The attorneys general all filed suit against tobacco companies to compensate for the massive amounts of state health care funds used to treat victims of tobacco-related disease.

Butterworth was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and has a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and a law degree from the University of Miami.

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During his career, Butterworth has served as mayor of Sunrise, Florida, executive director of Florida's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, sheriff of Broward County, Florida Circuit Court judge, Broward County Court judge and assistant state attorney and prosecutor in Dade and Broward counties.

He was first elected as state attorney general in 1986 and was re-elected in 1990, 1994 and 1998.

A resident of Broward County since 1950, Butterworth and his wife, Marta, have a son, Brandon, and a daughter, BreAnne.