N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper talks with enthusiasm about protecting children from Internet predators, fighting methamphetamine labs and suing to reduce air pollution from neighboring states.
"I wake up every morning excited and think about what I can do," said Cooper, who bypassed a Democratic run for governor to run a third four-year term as the state's top law officer. "There are so many issues to tackle."
His Republican challenger, law-firm executive Bob Crumley of Asheboro, said that Cooper has done some good but has been slow to respond to crime, particularly a backlog at the state crime lab that carries out DNA testing, and the spread of gang activity.
"I'd be more proactive. I would be more strategic in my thinking," Crumley said in an interview. "I would be more apt to get involved in issues earlier, and not worrying so much about the political implication of the issue."
Cooper's most recent predecessors -- Democrats Mike Easley and Lacy Thornburg -- both ran for governor after two terms. Easley won, and Thornburg lost.
"We're making great progress in the fight against crime, and I believe I can help this state do even more," said Cooper, 51, a former state legislator from Rocky Mount.
His most publicized action came in April 2007, when he threw out the remaining charges against the Duke lacrosse players who were falsely accused of raping a woman hired to perform as an exotic dancer at a team party.
Crumley said that the Duke case had already fallen apart when Cooper got involved.
And Crumley said that legal officials tell him it still takes several months for crime-lab evidence to be analyzed and returned to law enforcement.
Cooper was in office two years when the public learned that thousands of rape evidence kits collected by local law enforcement had never been processed.
Cooper said that backlog has been eliminated thanks to the hiring of extra analysts, but Crumley argues that delays could have been resolved years earlier if Cooper had used a 1937 law allowing other state agencies and universities to process evidence, with the governor's permission. But that would have cast Easley, Cooper's predecessor and a fellow Democrat, in a bad light, Crumley argues.
Crumley also said that Cooper has been slow to deal with growing problems with gangs. He said that Cooper should have known there would be a spike in gang activity after 2000 census figures showed a nearly 400 percent increase in the Hispanic population compared to 10 years ago.
Throughout history, Crumley said, large migrations have generated gangs because there will be "some bad people who will try to prey on the folks who are not yet inculcated into society."
Legislation to toughen penalties for gang activity passed last summer.
Cooper said that his office has been training local law enforcement to combat gang activity for years: "We're out in front of the problem. He's just flat wrong."
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