'Underwhelmed' by Republican field,
Cooper bids for Baldwin Senate seat
Declaring himself "underwhelmed" by the Republican field and motivated more by "duty than desire," Eastern Shore attorney and Democratic political veteran A.J. "Jay" Cooper decided to return to elective politics with a campaign for the vacant Baldwin County Senate District 32 seat.
Not long before the qualifying deadline, Cooper discussed his prospective candidacy with a dozen residents from various Baldwin County communities and whose political philosophies spanned the spectrum, he said.
According to Cooper, his sounding board expressed disgust with "arrogant" officeholders.
"Others said they were tired of taxes and fees being increased with little improvement in services," he related. "Some said that elected officials were too secretive and that citizens often didn't find out about important matters until they were a done deal."
Education, jobs and housing were leading concerns, said Cooper.
Cooper said he then told the group that Baldwin County "deserved better" than the GOP candidates whose qualifications left him "underwhelmed."
"Being the senator for District 32 is not a retirement program nor is it a place holder for career politicians," Cooper said.
Baldwin County needs "a leader with vision," a senator to speak up for the public and not for cronies and special interests, said Cooper.
"Baldwin County needs a leader who will fight for term limits and who will fight for children and teachers equally," said Cooper. "Baldwin County needs a leader who believes in honesty in budgeting and whose bedrock standard is that 'if you don't tighten your belt, you'll lose your britches.'"
Cooper said Baldwin countians are entitled to "a good education, a job that pays a livable wage, health insurance that is affordable, wind and flood insurance that is both available and reasonably priced, housing that is available for young college graduates as well as high school graduates who chose to work in the trades or in the service industry, housing that is affordable for the elderly and housing that is at a price point which can, and is permitted by zoning regulations, to replace tornado-prone manufactured housing."
Baldwin County needs a principled leader to ensure that roads are located to facilitate hurricane evacuation "and not just to help developers," said Cooper.
Voters are tired of "stealth elected officials" who engage the public only during election season, giving "bumper sticker speeches" rather than thoughtfully developing important ideas that address real problems affecting the community, said Cooper.
According to Cooper, the major issues before a senator, ranging from health care, prisons, roads, budget issues, the judicial system, taxation, care for the elderly and low-income citizens, all too often become "insider" issues managed by special interests and their lobbyists.
"The people always seem to be the last to find out what really happened, kind of like the deal made with a former college president," he charged. "Whether one agrees with the deal or not, everyone agrees that the Board should have let the public know in advance what the deal was going to be."
Cooper said his campaign is in the organizational stage and offices will be opened in Bay Minette, Gulf Shores, Robertsdale and Fairhope.
"The campaign will seek, through straight talk, to tell the unvarnished truth and demonstrate that Cooper cares the most about the people of Baldwin County," he said.
Five Republican candidates are battling for the GOP nomination to succeed Bradley Byrne who left the state Senate to take over as chancellor of the state's two-year college system.
They are former state Sen. Albert Lipscomb, County Commissioner Ed Bishop, Eastern Shore businessman Trip Pittman, state School Board Member and Gulf Shores real estate executive Randy McKinney and Baldwin County GOP chairman and attorney Don McGriff.
The GOP primary election will be held Aug. 7. A Republican runoff, if necessary, will be held Sept. 11. Cooper and the GOP nominee will clash in the general election Oct. 16.
Born Algernon Johnson Cooper, Jr. May 30, 1944 in Mobile, the ex-mayor of Prichard lives on the Eastern Shore with his wife, Fairhope artist BJ Cooper, in a home built by his family in 1946.
Cooper is vice-president of the Eastern Shore Democrat Club, a member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama Lawyers Association, Inc. and General Counsel of the Point Clear Cemetery Association and General Counsel of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, Inc.
Cooper and his wife are members of the Eastern Shore Art Center and The Friends of the Library. He is member of the Board of Trustees of Twin Beech AME Zion Church which is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year.
He is the father of three children: Lauren Cooper Green, a PhD candidate in theatre at New York University and a Spanish and theatre teacher in the New York City public school system; A. J. Cooper, III, a student at the University of Maryland and an actor, TV personality and a model and Ben Cooper, a student at Clark Atlanta University and a producer and entrepreneur.
After attending elementary school in Mobile, Cooper entered Marmion Military Academy in Aurora, Illinois where he graduated as Brevet Second Lieutenant in the Illinois National Guard. He then followed his two brothers to the University of Notre Dame.
Cooper was selected to go to Washington as a participant in the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Scholars Program. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin American History, he entered law school at New York University. While in law school, he founded the Black American Law Students Association, Inc. which is now more than 39-years-old with chapters on every law school campus in America. Cooper was also one of the 17 founders, and a current member of the Board of the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL).
Cooper’s formal political work began as a member of the staff of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York. He also worked full time in Robert Kennedy’s Presidential campaign. Subsequently, he was asked by the Kennedy family to go to Tennessee to work on the reelection campaign of Senator Albert Gore, Sr. That work ultimately landed him a job on Capitol Hill.
In 1972, Cooper was elected mayor of Prichard, a city of some 45,000 people, becoming the first black in Alabama since reconstruction to ever defeat a white incumbent. Cooper was a founder, and the first President of the National Conference of Black Mayors (“NCBM”), which now has over 800 members.
After serving two terms as mayor, he joined Secretary Moon Landrieu in the Secretary’s office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. After HUD, he went to Capitol Hill, first as Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, then as a member of the professional staff of the Ways and Means Committee and then Chief of Staff and Tax Counsel to U.S. Rep. Harold Ford.
As a Ways and Means staffer, he was involved in the creation of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, especially in the area of non-profit organizations.
In the 100th Congress, he continued to monitor tax-exempt regulations and lobbying regulations throughout the budget reconciliation process.
In 1988, Cooper left the Hill to become a partner in Ginsburg, Feldman and Bress, Chartered. His specialties include litigation, legislative and administrative law, as well as tax policy and public finance. Cooper is a member of the bars of Alabama and the District of Columbia.
Cooper is from an accomplished family of Alabamians that includes: a sister, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, the immediate past, two term, elected chair of the District of Columbia Board of education, founder of the D.C. Duke Ellington High School of the Arts and an arts patron and major fund-raiser for both charitable causes and Democratic candidates, a brother, Mario, who was former Deputy Director of the Democratic National Committee and Manager of the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York City and a brother, J. Gary, who is a former two-star General in the Marine Corps and a business person in Mobile.
Cooper said his "professional, social, political and familial associations bring a powerful national network of relationships to problem solving."
