If there was any doubt that Attorney General Roy Cooper plans to run for governor in 2016, Cooper erased it today with a fiery speech to Charlotte Democrats.
Cooper has been dropping plenty of hints in recent months that he hopes to take on Republican Gov. Pat McCrory two years from now. But the four-term AG (that's attorney general, not aspiring governor) gave what was probably his most emphatic, political speech yet to the Uptown Democratic Forum.
Cooper told the crowd that North Carolina is now controlled "not just by Republicans but extremists." He ticked off all the biggest Democratic talking points -- from voting restrictions to teacher pay to Medicaid expansion to environmental safeguards -- and then said: "We have to beat them at the ballot box."
"2016 will be the battle for the heart and soul of North Carolina," Cooper said. "That's when we will take our state back from these extremists" and elect a new governor.
Asked by reporters afterward whether it was safe to say he's officially in the race, Cooper all but said yes. "It's too early to make a formal announcement, but I'm concerned about our state and I'm clearly making plans." Asked why it's too early, Cooper said "we need to get through the 2014 elections" and "show that I'm doing my job as attorney general every day."
Cooper repeatedly referred to the "extremists" running Raleigh. Is Gov. McCrory an extremist, Cooper was asked? "The policies he has supported have been extreme," Cooper said.
A Democratic challenger could still emerge to create a Democratic primary. But it's increasingly looking like Cooper vs. McCrory might be the second-biggest fight on the 2016 card, right under the presidential race.
-- Taylor Batten
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Roy Cooper, aspiring governor
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7 comments:
Wish he would stay AG forever, he does an outstanding job as a fighter for the consumer of North Carolina. I fear another Elliot Spitzer, a loved AG, but not so much governor.
"Attorney" Cooper's unhinged name-calling would get him a contempt citation if he ever actually appeared in a court of law.
How is calling a governor's views "extremist" name-calling?
What blowhards like Cooper don't get is that he is just as extreme as McCrory.
He just occupies the other end of the extremist stick.
He would do well to remember the fiascos by Democrat control of this state for the past 100 years before Republicans took over.
Mr. Batten left off the main Democratic talking points that Cooper repeated in his comments..."war on women and war on minorities." Could that be because even the Observer realizes they have become so stale, silly and insulting to the intelligence of any thinking person that they are now ineffective and the butt of jokes by everyone except the lowest of the low information voter whose votes the Democratic Party has locked up anyway? By omission a subtle way to make Cooper look better than he came across with his statement the other day.
But the bottom line is that instead of even trying to have an intelligent discourse on the issues and the real problems Cooper's main strategy will be to follow the Democratic playbook of winning by dividing the people against themselves. To accomplish this no amount of misrepresentation will be enough.
The real extremists in this country are the people whose goal is political power at any price...even the dismantling of everything that has made this country great... and regardless of the consequences of their policies.
The narrow margin of loss for Kay Hagan during an otherwise red tidal sweep is good news for strong democratic candidates considering the opportunity of unseating poor performing politicians under the republican brand. Roy Cooper is the ultimate leading candidate and a strong natural leader with bipartisan appeal.
Regardless, a successful 2016 ballot of Hillary Clinton and Roy Cooper will have significant advantages over the GOP lineup
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