Prior to becoming attorney general, Foti had been repeatedly reelected and served for thirty years as Orleans Parish criminal sheriff.

Foti won the attorney general's office when the incumbent Democrat, Richard Ieyoub of Lake Charles, ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 2003 primary.

Foti failed in his bid to win reelection as attorney general, having finished last in the three-way nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 20, 2007.

Foti's fellow Democrat and successor as sheriff, Marlin N. Gusman, with 40,557 votes (48.9 percent), nearly won the position outright in the nonpartisan blanket primary.

[8] In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Foti as State AG prosecuted private citizens on behalf of the numerous elderly New Orleans residents who died in flooding, power failures, and resulting disaster.

[13] In a related story, the owners of a nursing home near Poydras filed a civil suit against federal, state and local officials, including the Army Corps of Engineers, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Attorney General Charles C. Foti Jr., and numerous other authorities and agencies for failing to evacuate nursing home residents during the hurricane.