RALEIGH, N.C. – Attorney General Roy Cooper talks with enthusiasm about protecting children from Internet predators, fighting meth 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 seek a third four-year term as North Carolina’s top law officer.

“There are so many issues to tackle.”

His Republican challenger, law firm executive Bob Crumley of Asheboro, said 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.

Cooper points to his record.

When there was a surge in clandestine methamphetamine labs, he got the General Assembly to restrict the sale of cold medicines with ingredients used to cook the illegal drug.

He sued the Tennessee Valley Authority and asked the federal government to force out-of-state polluters to meet tighter emissions standards. The cases are pending.

He worked with other attorneys general earlier this year to pressure MySpace to find ways to protect young users from sexual predators on its social networking Web site. And he forced gasoline stations to give motorists thousands of dollars in refunds for exorbitant prices this fall.

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 a stripper at a team party.

Cooper used his news conference footage in a campaign ad to highlight efforts to raise the number of DNA lab experts at the State Bureau of Investigation from five in 2001 to 42 today. Testers analyzed DNA evidence found on the accuser and determined that it did not match any of the Duke players.

“We want to remind the public how important DNA is for doing justice in North Carolina,” Cooper said.

Crumley said the Duke case had already fallen apart when Cooper got involved.

And Crumley said 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 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.

While some rape kits were processed by private labs, Cooper said there was no need for help from other agencies and he didn’t know whether college laboratories were capable of this kind of work.

“Most everyone will tell you that significant progress has been made,” Cooper said.

Crumley also said Cooper has been slow to address growing problems with gangs. He said 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 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.”

Crumley, 51, has been involved in GOP campaigns since the 1970s and ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2002. His Crumley and Associates law firm has 13 offices in the Carolinas, focusing on auto accidents, Social Security and workers’ compensation cases.

He has aired 15-second campaign ads that direct viewers to a Web site where Crumley appears in what look like television news segments. Crumley said the competitive presidential election in North Carolina and the economic downturn has made it hard to get attention.

“We tried to be inventive. We tried to be creative,” he said.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A group that made political telemarketing calls that did not comply with North Carolina law has agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties and is barred from operating in the state before the November election, Attorney General Roy Cooper said Wednesday.

The group, Women’s Voices Women Vote, began calling people in North Carolina shortly before the May primary election.  The prerecorded calls, also known as robo calls, told people that they would soon receive voter registration forms in the mail, which they should fill out and submit.  But the deadline to register by mail had passed, and some call recipients already were registered to vote, causing confusion.

Political robo calls are prerecorded telephone calls made by candidates, campaigns and advocacy groups using automated dialers.  Under state law, political campaigns and non-profits making prerecorded calls must identify who is making the call, the nature of the call, and provide contact information for the group that makes the call.

The calls did not identify Women’s Voices Women Vote or tell how to contact them, so people who were confused by the robo calls were not able to ask for clarification.

“My office takes quick action against robo calls that don’t strictly follow the law,” Cooper said. “People who don’t want these calls shouldn’t get them at all.  The law needs to be stronger so that the Do Not Call Registry applies to political robo callers just like any other telemarketer.”

Cooper launched an investigation in April into calls made by Women’s Voices Women Vote and demanded that the group stop the calls.  Cooper’s office received complaints about the calls from consumers, the NAACP and Democracy North Carolina.

Women’s Voices Women Vote today agreed to pay $100,000 in civil penalties for its prerecorded calls to North Carolina residents.  The money will go to North Carolina schools.

In a statement released to the media, Page Gardner, president of Women’s Voices, Women Vote, said the nonprofit group mails registration applications to people it beleives are not registered, or may have moved from their registered address.

“These mailings are frequently preceded by automated telephone calls (“robocalls”) advising the household that they will soon receive voter registration materials.  Unfortunately, due to an inadvertent error, these calls failed to identify WVWV as the organization sponsoring the calls.  WVWV understands that this failure was inconsistent with North Carolina law and, consequently, has entered into a settlement agreement to resolve the North Carolina Attorney General’s investigation of this matter.”

Gardner said it was not the group’s intention to cause confusion. 

Under the settlement agreement, Women’s Voices Women Vote agrees not to resume any voter registration, education, turnout or similar activities in the state until after the Nov. 4 election.  Any future voter activities by the organization in North Carolina must comply with state law and the group would have to provide the Attorney General’s Office with a written description of how it would ensure its compliance with the law.

WVWV seeks to register unmarried women, who constitute 26 percent of the election, and to encourage them to vote.  During the course of its history, WVWV’s efforts have resulted in the submission of more than 1 million voter registration applications across the country, with nearly 900,000 in this election cycle alone.  In North Carolina, WVWV’s efforts have generated more than 42,000 registration applications, including more than 32,000 in 2008.

With Election Day just weeks away and early voting already underway, North Carolinians are receiving more political robo calls from other groups and campaigns.  Earlier this year Cooper urged political parties and candidates to honor the Do Not Call Registry and reminded them to abide by state law that requires disclosures on robo calls.

People who join the Registry are protected from commercial calls by both state and federal laws, but those laws currently exclude political robo calls.  Cooper had asked lawmakers to include political robo calls in the Do Not Call legislation.

“Telemarketers that break our laws will face action from my office, whether they’re calling to pitch you a product or to win your vote,” Cooper said.  “If you get illegal telemarketing calls, let my office know about it.”

To report telemarketers or candidates that make calls unlawfully, consumers can call 1-877-5-NO-SCAM toll free within the state or download a consumer complaint form at www.ncdoj.gov.

To check on their voter registration status, people can visit the state Board of Elections web site at http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/VoterLookup.aspx or contact their local county board of elections.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Attorney General Roy Cooper’s first television ad for his re-election bid highlights the Duke University lacrosse case.
 
A commercial that began running Tuesday in the Triangle shows clips from his news conference last year when he declared three former players innocent of all charges.

The players were falsely accused of raping a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a 2006 lacrosse team party. Cooper said at the time that no DNA supported the woman’s story.

The ad’s narrator goes on to say Cooper helped modernize the state crime lab and added dozens of DNA experts.

Cooper is seeking a third term as attorney general. Republican challenger Bob Crumley has criticized Cooper for opening a new lab in Greensboro that doesn’t have the equipment to perform DNA testing.