10/22/2006

Op-Ed

A look at what Cox has done as attorney general

By George Weeks
Syndicated columnist

As in previous campaigns, truth has been a victim this year and both parties are the perpetrators.

Gubernatorial challenger Dick DeVos did not "outsource jobs to China," as Democrats claim. Debbie Stabenow is not a "do nothing" U.S. senator, as Republicans claim.

Nor has Attorney General Mike Cox sold "the sword and shield of the law "¦ to the highest campaign contributor" and protected "the interests of the rich and powerful" while slacking on consumer protection, as contended by Democratic challenger Amos Williams.

I focus here on Cox after talking to him last week, as I did earlier to Granholm, not so much about their reelection campaigns but about how each is dealing today with issues that were not on the radar screen when they began their public service more than a dozen years ago — including Internet porn, identity theft scams and homeland security.

As Michigan's first female attorney general, Granholm established Michigan's first High Tech Crime Unit to prosecute Internet crimes, and led a multi-agency response effort on terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

Cox brags that since taking office in January 2003 he has "arrested 106 Internet sexual predators that sought to harm Michigan's children. This exceeds the full four years of the prior administration, with almost five times as many Internet sexual predator arrests." Only Texas has a more productive computer predator unit, Cox contends.

In seeking election (winning by a mere 5,200 votes), Cox vowed a statewide crackdown on deadbeat parents to collect $25 million for the 650,000 children who did not receive support they were owed. He's raked in $27 million.

Given his early emphasis on deadbeat parents — not the most compelling issue for voters — and ex-Democratic Eternal General Frank Kelley's widely heralded record as a consumer champion in his astounding 37 years as AG, Cox by contrast lacks the first-term image of the consumer protector that he has become.

Williams, a personable Detroit attorney and retired city police lieutenant whose uphill challenge is hampered by lack of name recognition and money in a year where the gubernatorial race blots out all others, vows to "make the phrase 'consumer protection' mean something again."

Cox counters with such citations as recovering $38.8 million for consumers and taxpayers from "unsavory business practices," and saving "utility consumers $1.67 billion in utility rate increases."

I've viewed Cox as a sort of cradle-to-the-grave AG, looking out for the youngest and the oldest — doing much in recent years in protecting seniors from abuse and neglect, and taxpayers from fraudulent overpayments of health care expenses.

But the thing that most caught my attention this year about Cox, beyond his high-profile success in cracking some cold case homicides and prosecuting public corruption, were his undercover investigations, in 20 drug stores in each of 20 cities, into fluxuations into pricing of 10 of the top 25 most common prescription drugs used in Michigan.

Examples: In Dearborn, Gabapentin cost $12 at one place and a whopping $120 at another. In the Marquette/Escanaba /IronMountain survey on the same drug, there was a high/low difference of $109.

In Traverse City, there was a high/low difference on Acetaminophen w/Codeine of ly $33.74-a percentage difference of 300 percent. There was a $26.34 difference on Plavix.

The surveys were a good step toward consumer protection. What's most important is that they helped Cox prod to create prescription drug cost comparisons for consumers on a state-sponsored website. The Department of Community Health has one that allows consumers to search by zip code and by drug to compare the cost of a prescriptions at multiple pharmacies in their community: www.michigandrugprices.com.

This year, Cox announced a record $1.5 million settlement with Wal-Mart for "failure to follow Michigan's Item Pricing Law," and is taking legal action against Walgreen's for alleged violations of the same law.

Eyesores Eliminated (bf) Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, as her predecessors, runs Michigan's elections, but is best known as dispenser of their driver's licenses and auto plates. She's also become somewhat of an undertaker for junk cars.

Earlier this month, Land announced announce last rites of 92,000 vehicles that were cleared from roads and communities under the Abandoned Vehicle Law that marked its one-year anniversary this month.

Land, who championed revising the law, said: "Abandoned vehicles are a blight on our communities and pose a serious health and safety threat. It's clear our efforts are paying off. In the last year, we've removed about 184,000 tons worth of vehicles That's a lot of metal, oil, glass and rubber that will no longer be an eyesore and a hazard.

Under the law, first-time offenders of abandoned vehicles could face fines from $500 to $2,500, plus additional fines related to costs of removal, any damages to the environment and the vehicle's storage.

Most of the 92,000 vehicles were in downstate urban areas, but several thousand were removed from across the Upper Peninsula and in northern counties below the bridge.

Said Land: "Until this new law, you could be fined up to $500 for throwing a cigarette butt out your car window on the highway, but nothing for leaving a junk car on the shoulder."