AUSTIN—Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has more campaign cash than fellow Republicans Gov. Rick Perry and Tom Craddick combined, but he’s not ready to discuss his next move.

With almost $7.3 million at his disposal, Abbott’s options range from running for re-election in 2010 to possible pursuits of lieutenant governor, governor or the U.S. Senate.

“It’s too early to get into the prediction game, but (the money) is to be ready to wage a vigorous campaign to ensure that I get elected in this next go-round,” Abbott said in an interview published Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle.

Abbott’s work as attorney general has won praise in areas of open government, child support enforcement and crackdowns on Internet child sex predators. But he’s been under attack from those who think he’s cozy with rich homebuilding donors and Democrats who say he has intimidated minority voters in their party.

Abbott says he is most proud of helping Texas children. His office collected a record $2.3 billion in child support payments last year, and his cybercrimes unit has 101 arrests of online child predators, with 77 convictions so far. There have been 79 others arrests for child pornography.

“We have found a disturbingly large number of predators who were using the Internet ... as a way to surf for, locate and target the child victims,” Abbott said.

The Texas Freedom of Information Foundation awarded Abbott the James Madison Award for his support of open records and open meetings, and he scored points with religious conservatives by successfully defending before the U.S. Supreme Court a display of the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds.

“I’d love to see Greg Abbott move on (to higher office). He’s done a tremendous job as AG,” said Texas Eagle Forum President Cathy Adams.

Abbott briefly looked at running for lieutenant governor in 2001 but shifted to attorney general because millionaire David Dewhurst jumped into the contest. Now, Dewhurst is looking at a possible governor’s race in 2010, as is Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry has said he will run for re-election.

Abbott’s top donors since 2001 have included an array of Republican businessmen, including $322,000 from oilman T. Boone Pickens. He’s drawn fire through the $1 million he received from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry and more than $400,000 from others in the industry.

Although there is no evidence that Abbott has done anything for homebuilders, representatives of irate homeowner groups say Abbott hasn’t acted aggressively enough to protect consumers.

“The reality is that Bob Perry has never asked for any favor at all from me,” Abbott said.

Democrats say Abbott aggressively pursued minorities who help others vote by mail while passing on initial reports of abuse at Texas Youth Commission facilities. Those reports eventually erupted into a scandal.

“Literally, within the day that they got that TYC report, rather than acting on that report ... they send this guy off to prosecute a 62-year-old woman in Texarkana,” Democratic consultant Matt Angle said.

Abbott said his office didn’t initiate any of the voter fraud investigations. His staff responded to complaints filed by others, Abbott said.

The Texas Democratic Party lost an injunction request to halt Abbott’s voter prosecutions, but a federal lawsuit challenging the state law that he used in the prosecutions is scheduled for trial Wednesday in Marshall.