(The Center Square) – Five weeks away from Election Day and just more than three into a 61-day window of ballots being cast, the Senate Leadership Fund in a new ad campaign says law enforcement backs Republican Michael Whatley against Democrat Roy Cooper for U.S. Senate in North Carolina.
“Roy Cooper Betrayed Law Enforcement” includes Chef Effler, a 30-year lawman, representing the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police as its president, and David Rose, retired assistant police chief in Winston-Salem, representing the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association as its president.
“Convicted prisoners in our community does not make any community safer,” Rose says. “He showed up with policies that handcuff the cops and took the handcuffs off the criminals.”
Cooper, for his part, delivered a contradicting TV ad June 23 and still running.
In the 30-second spot, Cooper says, “Keep your family safe and lock up criminals – that’s what most North Carolinians want. And it’s not too much to ask. As your attorney general, I put drug dealers, rapists and murderers in prison and kept them there. As your governor, I toughened bail laws, went after drug dealers pushing fentanyl and said, ‘no way do we defund the police.’
“I’m Roy Cooper, and I approve this message because you deserve to feel safe. And there’s nothing political about that.”
Cooper has sported double-digit leads in polling at times, and has fiscal strength reflected in Federal Elections Commission filings. The ad was a double-down of sorts against Whatley pressing for months that his opponent has a “soft on crime” record, inclusive of supporting cashless bail. Cooper's ad, in its essence, is legitimizing and playing defense.
“Roy Cooper’s policy and record made North Carolina less safe,” Rose says at the close.
This U.S. Senate seat is viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for a majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska, Texas and Montana are the other top battlegrounds among 35 races. Two of those are special elections, the other 33 are in regular rotation.
Cooper was attorney general for 16 years and did send criminals he spoke of to prison. He was governor eight years after that and let out thousands.
Factual history of keeping prisoners in jail, toughening bail laws and standing with police isn't exactly where Cooper has been.
Cooper in February 2021 as governor settled a lawsuit with the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Disability Rights North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, four prisoners and an inmate’s wife. While saying at the time no violent offenders were among those released, public release of the inmates’ names this year revealed a lot about the 3,500 released came off death row – including that some indeed were convicted of very violent offenses.
It’s an action that has drawn a legislative inquiry that also ensnares now-Gov. Josh Stein, the attorney general at the time. And published reports tracking criminal records of those released indicate 18 in the group are now facing murder charges and more than 600 felonies have been charged.
Added to those groupings are Cooper's commuted sentences of 15 people convicted of killing others.
Cooper has been an advocate of cashless bail. He created the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice as his first term drew to a close, a group he handpicked to “reimagine public safety” and which among 125 recommendations included elimination of cash bail.
Additionally, as it relates to lawmen, he’s on record – via the gubernatorial veto stamp – against North Carolina sheriffs cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The North Carolina Troopers Association is another that has endorsed Whatley.
“The most basic job of any government is to keep its citizens safe," Whatley said. "Governor Roy Cooper was an abject failure at this most basic task. Cooper set up a revolving door which put criminals back on the street as soon as they were arrested and released more than 4,200 criminals from prison – 25 of whom went on to commit murder after being released.
"Roy Cooper failed to keep our communities safe and his attempt to rewrite history will never change that fact.”
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