RALEIGH -- Attorney General Roy Cooper's name always seems to come up.
Whether for U.S. Senate, the governor's office or even for the UNC-system president's mansion, when Democrats need a good candidate, Cooper gets a mention. From the moment he began his political career in the mid-1980s by winning a seat in the state House, Cooper has been pegged as a Democratic star with the potential for bigger things.
He got national acclaim in 2007 when he stood up and declared former Duke lacrosse players innocent of rape. Last year, national Democrats courted him to run against Republican Sen. Richard Burr, but he declined.
Now recent revelations about low standards, withheld test results and misconduct by agents in the crime lab at the State Bureau of Investigation, which Cooper oversees, have tarnished what has been a sterling image.
On Wednesday, Cooper called reporters to a news conference to outline a series of steps meant to begin repairing the damage. He brushed off a question about his political and professional future.
"I just want to fix the problems and make sure the SBI is better than it has ever been," Cooper said. "The key here is going to be to make sure we solve the problems, restore the public confidence in the SBI and move forward with them solving crimes, protecting the public and exonerating innocent people."
The attorney general, the state's highest law enforcement official, is elected to four-year terms and Cooper, 53, doesn't face voters again until 2012. Between now and then he will likely call many news conferences to discuss fixing the SBI.
If he turns around the agency, political observers say Cooper could emerge with a better reputation. But for a law-and-order candidate with a squeaky-clean image, cheating agents and potentially false convictions could present a major problem.
"It's going to create a long line of Republican candidates wanting to run for attorney general in 2012," said Paul Shumaker, a Republican political consultant who worked for Cooper's GOP challenger in 2008.
That challenger, Bob Crumley of Greensboro, made a campaign issue out of a Catawba County murder case he said had been botched by the SBI. But in the din of fiercely fought campaigns for president, U.S. Senate and governor, Crumley's issue didn't get much attention. Cooper won the race with 61 percent of the vote.
Since then, a News & Observer series and an audit have highlighted problems and misconduct in the lab. In 2012, appeals based on those revelations are likely to be grinding through the court system. If Cooper decides to run again, he may do so in a year when convictions are being overturned and criminals or innocent people are going free.
"The kind of information that's coming out now, it makes for good campaign ads," Shumaker said. "It's going to be very problematic for him trying to move forward."
Cooper is widely considered to have been a candidate to replace UNC-system President Erskine Bowles. The UNC Board of Governors last month chose Tom Ross, president of Davidson College, for the job.
Board chairwoman Hannah Gage said Wednesday that she cannot discuss applicants.
"We looked at the totality of the career. That's how we concluded that Tom Ross was the candidate for the job," Gage said. "That's how we approached every candidate we examined."
In his political career, Cooper has probably never gotten higher marks from a larger cross-section of North Carolina than when he declared that three former members of the Duke University lacrosse team were innocent of rape and sexual assault allegations.
The statement went further than a prosecutor would normally go and was hailed as a big step toward restoring confidence in the justice system after former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong was shown to have withheld evidence that exonerated the men.
Two paths for Cooper
"That's what a minister of justice ought to do," said Jim Coleman, a Duke University law professor. "There basically seem to be two Roy Coopers. Sometimes he seems detached and uninterested in things that are going on that he should be interested in as the chief law enforcement agent in the state.
"Other times, he seems to act with courage and with commitment as in the Duke lacrosse case," Coleman said.
Coleman said he does not think state residents blame Cooper for the problems in the SBI lab.
"I don't think people think that he was condoning this kind of conduct," he said. "He could have discovered it sooner if he had listened to defense lawyers who were raising these issues. Now that they have come to his attention, he's moved to deal with it. The question is whether he's going to fall back into what's comfortable or whether he's going to get out there and lead the charge."
Cooper has two years to make improvements to the SBI lab. So far, he has been open and aggressive, said state Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who served with Cooper in the House more than 20 years ago.
"I like his stance. He doesn't seem to have any objection to pulling that lab out from under the SBI," Michaux said. "He's doing what he has to do. He's assuming some responsibility. He may get a lot of credit, particularly if it does get squared away."
The ultimate test
Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic consultant who was an adviser to former Gov. Jim Hunt, said Cooper won't be graded on the actions of a few SBI agents.
"You always have scandals and controversy when you're an executive," Pearce said. "The ultimate test is how you handle it."
So far, Pearce said, Cooper hasn't made any moves that suggest his political career will end because of the SBI misconduct.
"There's always talk about him being governor," Pearce said. "If he solves this problem, maybe he should be governor."
