RALEIGH — As the race for North Carolina attorney general intensifies, Republican candidate Congressman Dan Bishop is pitching himself as the law-and-order candidate.
In a recent interview with North State, Bishop addressed concerns about rising crime rates, juvenile offenses and immigration enforcement while also responding to anticipated campaign attacks from his Democratic opponent.
“Charlotte police showed another 36% increase in homicides, 300% increase in juvenile homicides,” Bishop said. “Raleigh police data showed a 7.5% year over year increase in homicides in that six-month period.”
Bishop said he anticipates that his opponents will attack his character by tying him to the Jan. 6 breach at the U.S. Capitol or his stance on House Bill 2 — the 2016 Bathroom Bill — as a “demonization strategy.” Democrats have already tried to tie Bishop to Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson following last week’s CNN story that rocked the state’s gubernatorial campaign.
Bishop, however, wants to redirect the conversation to crime and safety in the state.
“They’ll just insult and talk about mean tweets and call people extremist,” said Bishop. “Think about how ridiculous that is.
“I’m the guy that wants to enforce law. There’s no more sort of traditional kind of political messaging than ‘law and order.’ And that’s exactly what I’m talking about consistently. In fact, apolitical, neutral and unpoliticized enforcement of law.”
Bishop called the rise in juvenile crime a “crisis.”
“I think putting the two words together, juvenile homicides, is shocking enough as it is. It means 12 children killed somebody in Charlotte,” Bishop said.
Bishop also wants improved coordination between law enforcement agencies.
“What I’ve talked about is the attorney general’s office doesn’t have direct prosecutorial power,” explained Bishop. “But what it has is an enormous team coordination opportunity that has been completely abdicated over many years, but certainly under two terms of Josh Stein.
Bishop said the recent passage of House Bill 10, which includes provisions related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), needs to become law so sheriffs cannot ignore federal detainer holds. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill last week.
“If they’re not going to abide the law, then I’m going to use the power invested in me as attorney general to enforce the law,” said Bishop, adding, “We’re not going to pick and choose” what laws are enforced.
“They can have their opinions about them. I guess they can even state their opinions, although I don’t believe that’s helpful to enforcing the law,” Bishop said of sheriffs opposing being required to comply with ICE detainers. “But they are certainly going to do their duty or I’m going to use the power that North Carolina voters are going to entrust in me to see to it that they do it or they’re replaced.”
Bishop said the $15 million ad buy against him on behalf of his opponent, freshman Congressman Jeff Jackson (NC-14), would be countered by his campaign.
“This is going to be the most expensive attorney general race in the country this year, and yeah, the Democrats always bring in a lot of outside money in order to dominate a space,” said Bishop.
“And the reason they try to do that, the reason they outspent their last opponent 25 to one down the stretch, is because they use the office of attorney general and similar executive positions in order not to fulfill law, in order not to enforce all of the law, but to pick and choose, and to politicize law. That has to stop.”
Safer North Carolina, a group backed by the Republican Attorneys General Association, released an ad on Sept. 17 focusing on North Carolina’s crime rate being “higher than the national average” for the first time in 13 years, as well as the large spike in juvenile crime.
The ad, which is part of a reported seven-figure digital buy, says, “Jeff Jackson voted to allow early release of violent criminals from prison — murderers, rapists, carjackers,” and he “won’t keep us safe.”
Jackson launched his first major ad, “Opening statement,” on Sept. 17. The ad is around 32 seconds long with the title tying in his work as a prosecutor in Gaston County. Jackson worked in that role for 3½ years starting in 2011 and eventually became a Gaston County deputy district attorney.
“I’m running to keep you and your family safe — from fentanyl, violent crime, scammers and corrupt politicians,’ Jackson says in the ad. “As a prosecutor, I put away violent criminals. As a soldier, I served with the Army in Afghanistan. And as attorney general, I’ll defend your family just as strongly as I would defend mine.”
The ad is shot in a courtroom and closes with Jackson turning to his family in the jury box and asking, “How did I do?”
Bishop launched his 30-second ad on Sept 19, titled “Experience.”
The ad contrasts Bishop’s experience of “403 appearances” before state and federal trial and appellate courts, and the state Supreme Court to Jackson’s “five appearances as counsel of record” during his three years in the district attorney’s office, with Jackson portrayed by a mannequin wearing a blue T-shirt that read “woke” on it.
“Much of my opponent Jeff Jackson’s three-year career as an assistant district attorney was spent handling traffic tickets,” Bishop says in the ad.
