Mike Cox
From Ballotpedia
Mike Cox (born 1961) is the 52nd and current Michigan Attorney General, having served since January 1, 2003. He is the first Republican in 48 years to serve as Attorney General of Michigan. He won re-election in 2006, defeating Democratic candidate Amos Williams. Current Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm preceded him as the state's 51st Attorney General.
Attorney General
Cox was elected Attorney General in 2002 and sworn into office on January 1, 2003. Within days of taking office, Cox created the Child Support Division, a first-of-its-kind program to collect child support. By combining public awareness with targeted prosecutions, the division collected more than $35.3 million on behalf of more than 3,500 Michigan children in its first four years. In 2004, Cox received the Golden Hearts Award from the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, the nation's largest child support organization, and reorganized the Child and Public Protection Unit, making Michigan one of the most aggressive states in the nation to tackle the growing problem of Internet predators. Since taking office, Cox's unit continues to arrest more Internet predators than any state other than Texas.
From 2003-2006, Cox's Consumer Protection Division returned a record $43.4 million to the citizens and the State of Michigan. During the same period, he prevented $1.78 billion in utility rate increases that would have come directly out of the pockets of Michigan's consumers and businesses.
In 2003, Cox formed the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) to uncover public corruption and solve cold case homicides.
Cox has collected more money (more than $70 million) than was collected by the Health Care Fraud Division in their first 24 years of existence (less than $20 million). He drafted, the Medicaid Whistleblower Protection Act, legislation against Medicaid fraud, which provides financial incentives to those who assist in the investigation or prosecution of a violator of the Medicaid False Claims Act. Cox spearheaded the drafting and passage of legislation requiring mandatory criminal background checks of employees in residential care facilities, including nursing homes, to safeguard Michigan seniors.
Cox has also fought to protect the Great Lakes from aquatic nuisance species and biological pollutants by challenging the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ballast water discharges.
Cox has also been accused of aggressively prosecuting deadbeat parents, including a public relations campaign which called attention to the issue of unpaid child support. "Billboards boasting of jail time for fathers struggling with child support obligations dot the Michigan landscape, as a politically savvy Attorney General seeks to boost his career the way so many have over the past two decades--by beating up on divorced dads."
2006 election and later
Cox had raised over $1.9 million to contest the 2006 election and on November 7, 2006, was re-elected to a second term as Michigan's Attorney General defeating Democratic candidate Amos Williams. Cox is serving his last term as Attorney General, since Michigan statewide officeholders are limited to 2 terms in office.
Cox received nationwide negative press in 2007 when the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that adultery could, at least in theory, be prosecuted as first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a resulting life in prison sentence. This unanimous decision was reached as a result of an appeal sought by Cox's office on a drug case that touched in part on this strange loophole in the law. In November 2005, Cox himself admitted to committing adultery while accusing Oakland County lawyer Geoffrey Fieger of blackmail, claiming that he threatened to reveal the affair if Cox did not drop an investigation into Fieger's alleged campaign finance violations. Cox said his personal conduct was "inexcusable" and had reconciled with his wife. He stated, "I will not let a bully prevent me from doing the job the people of Michigan elected me to do."
Cox's spokesman and communications director Rusty Hills has defended him on whether Cox himself could be prosecuted. "To even ask about this borders on the nutty," Hills told Detroit Free Press Columnist, Brian Dickerson. "Nobody connects the attorney general with this —N-O-B-O-D-Y —and anybody who thinks otherwise is hallucinogenic."
External links
- Mike Cox biography
- Michigan Attorney General (official site)
- Michigan Repubican Party (official site)
- Opposition site (Michigan Democratic Party)
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