10/13/2006

Williams trying to unseat Mike Cox

LANSING (AP) - One is an ex-Marine and prosecutor who convicted the bad guys in court. The other is an Army veteran who chased them down in alleys.

But aside from their law enforcement and military backgrounds, the similarities are few between Republican Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and his Democratic challenger Amos Williams.

They not only clash over social issues such as abortion and affirmative action, but also what their priorities would be if elected on Nov. 7.

Cox, 44, sees his first term as a success. He says he has collected a record amount of consumer protection dollars and saved customers money on utility bills while expanding the office's focus to collect $26 million in unpaid child support and prevent gun-related violence in Detroit.

He helped push for a more user-friendly state Web site to help consumers shop for prescription drugs. His office also has arrested more than 100 sexual predators trolling the Internet and targeted neglect and inadequate care at a chain of west Michigan nursing homes.

"I've expanded the horizons of the office — the stuff we've been doing on child support, the stuff we've been doing on nursing homes," says Cox, a former Wayne County homicide unit director and assistant prosecutor. "We started a lot of exciting things that I want to be around to see grow and to reach their full potential." But Democrats criticize Cox's record and say it's time to replace him.

Williams, 59, says Cox has a problem with ethics and integrity — an allusion to Cox's 2005 announcement of an extramarital affair, which Cox says he was forced to make public after being threatened by trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger.

No charges were filed against Fieger, though Oakland County's prosecutor said he committed ethical violations.

Cox, of Livonia, was investigating Fieger for negative ads in the 2004 state Supreme Court election. He says he doesn't think the affair should be a factor in the race and says if Democrats try to make it a big deal, "it's going to be pretty telling about what they think about their chances."

Williams, of Grosse Pointe, says he would do more than Cox to protect the interests of all residents.

He says the attorney general should stop tactics used by insurance companies to charge residents in some areas much higher premiums, noting the companies have "been running almost totally unregulated."