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Cooper for A.G.
North Carolina has a solid, pro-consumer attorney general who deserves a second term to build on his experience
The (Raleigh) News & Observer
Oct. 28, 2004
The job of attorney general is one of the most important in North Carolina's state government. The person who holds it can do much good for the public as an advocate for justice. Roy Cooper, 47, first elected four years ago, has taken that mission seriously, although not without hitting some bumps in the road.
Cooper is a soft-spoken lawyer and former Nash County legislator whose career in public service has been marked by his standing up for worthy causes: open government, public education, consumer protection, strong support for resources to better investigate crimes. As head of the state Department of Justice, Cooper has cracked down on payday lending firms, flim-flams and identity theft, and sought to shut down methamphetamine labs and improve access to DNA testing. Those efforts suggest the gamut of responsibilities for North Carolina's attorney general, who also supervises the SBI.
The News & Observer's editorial endorsement in Tuesday's election goes to Cooper in the belief that he has shown his commitment to the interests of average people and will continue to be strong in his role as the state's chief law enforcement officer.
We have had substantial disagreement with Cooper on the matter of his aggressive pursuit of the death penalty, and in particular over his handling of the follow-up in the case of Alan Gell, a Bertie County man who went to death row for a murder for which he later was exonerated. Though the case did not first come to fruition under Cooper (the murder was in 1995; the original trial in 1998), he was the one who decided to push ahead with the new trial Gell was awarded after it was shown that prosecutors in the first trial had withheld evidence that might have proven Gell innocent.
Cooper could have chosen not to retry Gell, which is what he should have done. Instead, a second trial resulted in a speedy acquittal. It's our hope that Cooper has learned from that experience. But as regrettable as the experience was, he does convey an understanding of the importance of protecting the justice system's integrity, and he has done a good job running an efficient agency.
Like Cooper, Raleigh attorney Joe Knott, 53, is active in his church and passionate about his close family. A former federal prosecutor now in private practice, Republican Knott is making his first run for public office. He has vowed that he would not "go negative" in this campaign. Among his themes are keeping politics out of criminal investigations and taking a hard line against official wrongdoing. But though he is certainly an upstanding figure, Knott has not made a convincing case for replacing Cooper, which was his burden of proof in this race.
The fact is, Roy Cooper has done a good job in his first term, if not a perfect one, and has shown himself to be a progressive voice for the citizens of North Carolina. He deserves a chance to carry on.
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