Cox runs new attack ad against Hoekstra

Attorney General Mike Cox has unleashed an ad criticizing Congressman Pete Hoekstra for missing votes on health care reform. The ad comes as polling shows Cox in a virtual dead heat in their race to win the Republican party nomination for governor.

The ad attacks Hoekstra for missing many votes in the last year — a time he has been actively engaged in seeking the governor’s office — and criticizes the veteran congressman for voting in favor of “the Wall Street bailout.”

The obvious intention here is to paint Hoekstra as fiscally irresponsible, though he does not mention that the Wall Street bailout has actually been profitable for the feds as companies pay back loans with interest. And Cox’s own spending history as Attorney General could come back to bite him on the issue of fiscal conservatism.

In 2007, with the state facing massive budget deficits, Cox opposed a Granholm plan to commute the sentences of 500 dying prison inmates. The Detroit Free Press, in an editorial on Dec. 26, 2007, wrote that Cox’s opposition to the plan could cost the state $30 million in medical care for the 300 sickest prisoners.

And in 2003 and 2004 Cox came under fire for giving non-union AG staffers — identified in the Detroit News at the time as some of the highest paid employees in state government — bonuses. In 2003, as state employee unions were giving the state millions of dollars in concessions, Cox delivered $280,000 in bonuses. As the heat from that decision cranked up, Cox said he would not do it again, reported the Detroit News.

But in 2004, he doled out more bonuses to staffers. This time Cox awarded $340,000 in bonuses. Luther Keith a Detroit News columnist reported that the money Cox used to fund the bonuses came from a fund financed by prisoners to pay for their incarceration. State Employer David Fink at the time told the Detroit News:

“That’s the people’s money,” Fink said. “That money is not to be passed out like a party favor, it’s to be returned to the state coffers so it can be properly budgeted and spent to ease the financial pressure in the future.”

“Mike Cox attacking anyone on missing in action and spending is just ridiculous, He has been missing in action as AG since running for governor. It’s hypocritical,” says David Holtz, executive director of Progress Michigan. “He has been returning only to file useless lawsuits. The truth is, we should be advertising on Craigslist for some one to act as the temporary AG while Cox is out running for office.”

Cox and Hoekstra will square off with State Sen.Tom George, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder on Aug. 3 for the GOP nomination for governor.