His popularity among voters in the state led to frequent mention of his name as a potential candidate for Governor of Florida or for the U.S. Senate.

After the Medina execution, Butterworth commented, "People who wish to commit murder, they'd better not do it in the state of Florida because we may have a problem with the electric chair.

"[4] One of Butterworth's key activities during his time in office was the initiation and execution of Florida's lawsuit against the tobacco industry, which was one of the early contributions to what eventually became a nationwide effort.

Butterworth was the Florida chair of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and chose not to use his capacities as Attorney General to influence court decisions on whether all the votes would be counted, given the obvious conflict of interest that would have been involved in doing so.

In 2002, Butterworth ran for Seat 25 in the Florida Senate, in hopes of representing portions of Palm Beach and Broward Counties.