Of the three candidates facing off in the race for attorney general, one says he’ll be tough on crime, the current office holder contends he’ll improve society in general and the third just hopes he’ll get enough votes to be noticed.
In the race, incumbent Democrat Hardy Meyers is facing a challenge from Republican Kevin Mannix and Libertarian Thomas Cox.
Cox, a database engineer from Salem, is frank about his slim chances of winning the race, saying that all he hopes to do is garner more votes than the margin of difference between Mannix and Meyers. Doing so, he said, would amount to recognition to his small party.
“I hope the loser is going to look at my votes and say, ‘Oh man, why did I leave those votes on the table? Why didn’t I go after them?’” he said.
As a Libertarian attorney general, Cox said he would work to ensure that government is as non-intrusive into people’s lives as possible.
“I’ve got a slightly different vision on what government and the attorney general should do,” he said. “I’ll be accountable to voters with an eye toward protecting people from government encroachment.”
He doesn’t view his lack of government or legal experience as a drawback because he says it lets him view the office in a new light.
“Lawyers try to be helpful, and if your vision as attorney general is that you work for the government, then you’re going to help them and not people,” he said.
Cox received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1986, and worked in public relations and management consulting prior to becoming a database engineer.
Drawing on his experience in state government and law, Republican contender Mannix said his chief goal as attorney general would be to protect Oregonians from violent crime and fraudulent companies. He said during his service in the state legislature, he drafted several crime bills, including the mandatory sentencing act Measure 11, as well as an anti-stalking law.
“Nobody in elected office can claim to be more effective in fighting crime than I have,” he said.
Mannix received both a bachelor’s and a law degree from the University of Virginia. He has served as an administrative law judge, an assistant attorney general in both Guam and Oregon, a circuit court judge and a state senator and representative. He said his law experience is one of his best attributes, but also said he has not lost touch with the average voter.
“I’m going to go after property crime like I went after violent crime,” he said. “The nitty-gritty is the guy who takes his car to the shop and the mechanic says it will be $700, then he does the work and says it will be $900 and holds the car. In a $200 consumer rip-off, I’ll step in immediately.”
“I expanded the law to include any sexual relationship, regardless of gender or orientation,” he said.
Meyers, the incumbent, has said he will be tough on crime, and added that his office would protect society in general and not just prosecute crimes.
“I think of the [attorney general’s] office very much in terms of the security and safety of individuals, but also in the social health,” he said.
Prior to being elected attorney general, Meyers served as a state representative and speaker of the house, held a chair on the Oregon Criminal Justice Council and served on the Oregon Law Commission. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and his law degree from the University of Oregon.
As attorney general, Meyers said he has worked hard to ensure that the state has received the most objective and unbiased law counsel, and acted within proper accordance of the law.
He noted his work to assist victims of domestic violence, establish an automated telephone notification system to update crime victims on the trials of suspects in their cases, and the movement of the state’s anti-trust litigation against the proposal of the planned merger between British Petroleum-Amoco and ARCO.
The main goal of his office’s work, Meyers said, is to ensure that Oregonians’ basic rights are protected.
“We pursue the end of law as really the foundation of the ability of people to live free,” he said.