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Mike Cox (born 1961) is the 52nd Michigan Attorney General, having served since January 1, 2003. He is the first Republican in 48 years to serve as Attorney General of Michigan since Frank Millard left office in 1955. He won re-election in 2006, defeating Democratic candidate Amos Williams, an attorney from Detroit. Current Michigan Governor, Jennifer M. Granholm preceded him as the state's 51st Attorney General.

Mike Cox has announced his candidacy for the 2010 race for Michigan's governorship. Local and national polling indicated that Cox is the front-runner for the Republican nomination and defeating his potential Democratic opponents in the 2010 gubernatorial election by comfortable margins.^[1][2][3][4]

As Attorney General, Cox took a prominent role in taking on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM). Cox has opposed BCBSM supported bills and challenged BCBSM in court for the alleged transfer of nonprofit funds to purchase a for-profit company.^[5]

In 2003, Cox created a Cold Case unit to investigate and prosecute cold cases.^[6] Cox's team has had notable convictions including Coral Watts, John Rodney McRae, two brothers who killed two Oakland County hunters, two people who killed Christopher Brown, six people who murdered Janet Chandler in 1979, and most recently, Timothy Dawson who was convicted of killing his wife.^[7]

2010 Campaign for Governor

Cox filed paper work to explore a bid for Governor in 2010. Currently Cox is the first person to file an exploratory committee.^[8] The Republican nominee in 2006, Dick DeVos, announced he is not going to seek the GOP nomination in 2010.^[9] In March, the Detroit Free Press reported that Cox led the likely Democratic challenger, Lt. Governor John D. Cherry, by 41-34%^[10]. In mid April, Cox announced that his exploratory committee had set up a business and finance advisory committee. Among the names released included, Peter Karmanos, Jr, the CEO and founder of Compuware, former Michigan Chamber of Commerce President Jim Barrett, and major Republican fundraiser, C. Michael Kojaian, President of the Kojaian Companies. According to the AP story, the list included 20 other business leaders from across Michigan.^[11]

On May 27, 2009, Cox formally announced his candidacy for governor on Facebook and Twitter.^[12]

Cox has introduced a proposal of 92 ideas to fix Michigan's economy. This proposal calls for cutting taxes by two billion and increasing spending on higher education by one hundred eighty five million.^[13]

Cox joins Mike Bouchard, the Oakland County Sheriff and former state senator, state Sen. Tom George, Congressman Peter Hoekstra and business person Rick Snyder as 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidates.

Issues

Taxes

Cox favors a cut in the business tax by half and suggests reversing income tax increases.^[13]

Education

Cox wants to return to 2002 levels in higher education spending.^[13]

Contracts

Cox favors removing ten percent of the current twenty one billion dollars in state contracts out of the system.^[13]

Detroit Mayor's Mansion party

Cox played a role in aftermath of the Detroit Mayor Mansion party where strippers were alleged to have been present and allegedly assaulted; one dancer was murdered shortly after.^[14][15][16]

Citing no evidence, no proof, and no witnesses, Cox closed an investigation by the State of Michigan into allegations of a "wild party" at Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's residence (known as the Manoogian Mansion).^[17][18] The Michigan State Police continued their own separate investigation.

Cox interviewed the Mayor with his chief criminal prosecutor.^[17] The police noted that Cox insisted on interviewing the former mayor alone without MSP present, because there were allegations of media leaks.^[19] State police officers have testified that they had strong leads that needed to be followed regarding the Manoogian Mansion party, that the state police believed that the Detroit Police Department was destroying evidence in the case, but "because of actions by Attorney General Mike Cox, they were powerless to stop them."^[20][21] IIn a state police memo, the state police revealed that they had wanted to interview the mayor and the mayor's wife, but because the attorney general "shut down" the investigation they could not get subpoenas, could not get witnesses to cooperate and could not get medical records.^[14] In response, Cox said he didn't care, the police could have "went"^[22] to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy if they wanted subpoenas and that criticism of him was "absolute bullshit" and that you may quote him on that. After talking about what he called the thoroughness of the investigation, Cox attempted to explain his actions in closing the investigation without interviewing the alleged assault perpetrator by saying that that the Manoogian Mansion party assault allegations were "only" about a misdemeanor so that the state police didn't need to interview the alleged assault perpetrator. In addition, Cox said that newspaper reporters (who lack subpoena power to further investigate a case in which evidence was allegedly being destroyed) didn't find evidence that the police did not find.^[23]

7 years after the investigation it has not been proven to have occurred.^[17] However, after the investigation was shut down by Mike Cox, new evidence has come to light, including an allegation by a records' clerk at the police department that she saw a police report alleging an assault at the manoogian mansion^[24] and an allegation by the chief of police from a nearby city that he was invited to the party and allegations of a witness to the scene at the hospital when the assault victim arrived for treatment with what appeared to be the then-mayor's security detail running escort which witness was told by a coworker that he victim had been beaten by the mayor's wife^[25]

Adultery law

Cox received nationwide 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.^[26][27] 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.^[28][29] Cox said his personal conduct was "inexcusable" and had reconciled with his wife.

Pursuant to MCL 750.31, however, only Cox himself, his wife, or parties to the marriage (if any) of the co-adulterer or adulterers with whom he committed felonies may pursue a complaint for prosecution of felony adultery. Cox did not recuse himself from the decision to file a complaint for prosecution of his adultery notwithstanding the apparent conflict of interest.^[18]

References

External links

• Mike Cox biography
• Michigan Attorney General (official site)
• Mike Cox 2010 for Governor (official campaign site)