Attorney General Roy Cooper raised $2.8 million in his successful re-election campaign.

Cooper, a Democrat, reported raising $282,193 from Oct. 19 to the end of the year, according to campaign finance disclosures.

Cooper's largest contributors for the quarter included Charles Barker, chief executive of Concord-based ACN, Inc., a telecommunications company; Thomas Belk, chief executive of the Belk department store, Jim and Ann Goodnight; and Michael DeMayo, a Charlotte lawyer.

Cooper also received significant contributions from committees affiliated with Citigroup, GlaxoSmithKline and Smithfield Foods.

Cooper spent $2.5 million on his run for Attorney General. He has $367,000 left in his campaign account.

A new ad by Attorney General Roy Cooper highlights his role in dismissing the charges against three Duke University lacrosse players.

Bob Crumley will no longer appear in ads for his law firm.

The Republican candidate for state attorney general has long had his name and image in ads for Crumley and Associates which air in Greensboro, the Triangle and Charlotte. 

One ad, which did not explicitly mention it was for a law firm, raised concerns from open government advocates for lines such as "People helping people, that's part of our North Carolina heritage. For Bob Crumley, it's been his life."

Crumley argued the ads didn't violate campaign finance laws, but pulled the ads to avoid a fight with election officials. 

"I have bigger fish to fry right now," Crumley said, adding, "I think the position the (state) board of elections is taking is designed to affect a particular candidate and that candidate is me." 

He vowed to fight the issue after the campaign ends. (GN-R)

Roy Cooper is still fighting a lawsuit from 2000.

The state's attorney general, currently running for a third term, is defending himself against a defamation lawsuit filed by his Republican opponent in 2000.

The lawsuit centers on a campaign commercial from that year and could set a national precedent over whether a candidate can successfully sue an opponent over a political ad.

The ad criticized Dan Boyce and his law firm for seeking a large fee in a class-action tax case against the state. Boyce argues that he didn't work on the case; his father did.

His father, Gene Boyce, said Cooper's lawyers are responsible for much of the slowdown.

"They know how to drag a case out," he said. (Char-O) 

Bob Crumley is requesting public records involving the creation of the state's e-mail deletion policy.

A press release calls the current e-mail policy "another example of Roy Cooper's failure of leadership."

An Asheboro attorney, Crumley is running for attorney general against Cooper.

Crumley says the current policy gives too much freedom to state employees in deciding whether to delete e-mails or save them.

He doesn't think the ability to destroy public records should be allowed without oversight, saying this ability is a violation of the state public records law.

Crumley is requesting "any and all public records related to the creation of this policy," but has not indicated what he hopes to find in the records.

Bob Crumley says Roy Cooper should respond on a public records flap. 

The Republican candidate for attorney general accused the Democratic incumbent of not doing enough to preserve public records.

A Cooper spokeswoman said earlier this week that he had no comment on the deletion of e-mails under a policy set by Gov. Mike Easley because of potential litigation.

In a press release, Crumley said that public records belong to North Carolinians, not to "Raleigh bureaucrats."

"Public records belong to the public,” he said in a statement. "Public officials who destroy them are breaking the law.  As Attorney General, I will stop them cold in their tracks."

Now that filing is done, the Republican primary is pretty clear.

Three Council of State races on the GOP ballot will be competitive.

For governor, Salisbury attorney Bill Graham, Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory, former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and state Sen. Fred Smith are joined by longshot candidate pecan farmer Elbie Powers.

For lieutenant governor, state Sen. Robert Pittenger, former Congressional candidate Greg Dority, former lieutenant governor candidate Jim Snyder and Timothy Cook are running.

Tryon resident Joe Johnson, former House Speaker Richard Morgan and Eric H. Smith are running for the nomination for superintendent of public instruction.

Several candidates have no primary challenge.

Randolph County attorney Bob Crumley will face Attorney General Roy Cooper, Burlington attorney Jack Sawyer will face Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, state Rep. Bill Daughtridge will run for treasurer and former Raleigh Councilman John Odom will run for insurance commissioner.

Three incumbents, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, state Auditor Les Merritt and Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, also have no primary challengers.

Roy Cooper celebrated the expansion of the state crime lab today.

At a ceremony in Raleigh, the state attorney general commemorated the opening of a 22,000-square-foot addition to the State Bureau of Investigation's facilities.

The new lab will house 32 experts, who will analyze crime scene evidence submitted by local law enforcement officials across the state.

Cooper successfully lobbied for funding of new analysts and a second facility by 2008 in the Triad during the recent legislative session.

Still, he took some heat from a Republican rival.

Bob Crumley, who is seeking the nomination to run against Cooper in 2008, said the expansions are long overdue. He said the main lab has a backlog of evidence to process.

"You've got criminals who know if they go out and commit a crime, it'll take 15 to 18 months to get the evidence back," he said. "Where's the swift and sure punishment there?"