Forsyth Cty.  district attorney now GOP candidate for NC Attorney General

After a century of having the law in North Carolina politicized by Democrat Attorneys General, there is hope that voters will replace Roy Cooper and the Democratic Party-run Attorney General’s Office with a Republican law enforcer from Forsyth County named Jim O’Neill.  O’Neill is the second GOP candidate to enter the race, and two Democrats are said to be running for the AG position. A Republican hasn’t been elected as North Carolina’s attorney general in more than 100 years. Meanwhile Cooper is now running for governor.

Roy Asberry Cooper III, first served as a member of the North Carolina State Senate, and ran for — and won -election as the state’s Attorney General. His claim to national fame was his 2007 prosecution of college lacrosse players at Duke University who he and others accused of sexually assaulting a prostitute hired as a topless dancer for a college party.

The media attention to the case caused the local district attorney to become careless during his public statements and he began trying the case in the news media who were more than happy to give him attention. His case fit into the familiar media narrative that a black woman was sexually violated by a bunch of “rich white boys.” But within days the truth surfaced and Cooper ended up having to take the case away from the local Democrat and was then left with nothing but egg on his face as he dropped all charges against the lacrosse players.

While Cooper is a career politician — he’s currently running for governor — the Republican who is seeking the State Attorney General Office, Jim O’Neill, is a lifetime law enforcement official who has served Forsyth County with distinction, first as an assistant district attorney and then as the elected District Attorney of the North Carolina county. For 18 years he has accumulated a record of success without resorting to politically-motivated prosecutions or pandering to groups.

“While Democrats — who many have said secretly met with members of the New Black Panther Party about the Duke case in 2007 — worked cases with the fanfare of a politician, O’Neill appears to have been low-key and placed the emphasis on the cases at hand,” said political strategist Mike Baker. “O’Neill is a prosecutor in the tradition of Rudy Giuliani and Patrick Fitzgerald, two men who succeeded in making a difference in their respective jurisdictions,” he added.

O’Neill has prosecuted many offenders in death penalty cases and created programs that target sex offenders and chronic criminal offenders.  Forsyth County also began an Elder Abuse Task Force to protect senior citizens from predators and he made certain the most vulnerable residents were afforded justice.

“The job of Attorney General is a tough and demanding position,” he said on his campaign website. “It’s not for beginners. I firmly believe that in order to become the top prosecutor for the state of North Carolina, the best candidate should be experienced in running a prosecutor’s office somewhere in one of our 100 counties.” Meanwhile, the Democratic Party-run State Attorney General had to keep his head above water in a 2010 scandal: the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) under Cooper was accused of tampering or distorting evidence in hundreds of cases which may have harmed some innocent men and women. Three of the defendants in botched cases have been executed, according to a story in the News and Observer.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party-run State Attorney General had to keep his head above water in a 2010 scandal: the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) under Cooper was accused of tampering or distorting evidence in hundreds of cases which may have harmed some innocent men and women. Three of the defendants in botched cases have been executed, according to a story in the News and Observer.

Visit Jim O’Neill’s campaign webpage for addition information.