CullmanTimes.com - Cullman, Alabama

Top News

Related Photos

  • Michel Nicrosi

    Michel Nicrosi

Discussion

February 25, 2010

Nicrosi looks to dethrone AG King

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — With a growing number of contestants vying to unseat incumbent Alabama attorney general Troy King, candidates for the office are beginning to make the campaign rounds in north Alabama, hoping to distinguish their message and gain name recognition.

One candidate, a Mobile federal prosecutor, made a campaign stop in Cullman recently to acquaint local Democrats and law enforcement with her message.

“I’m not a politician,” said AG candidate Michel Nicrosi on a recent visit to The Times’ office. “I don’t know that world. I’ve spent most of my career in courtrooms, trying cases and working in the criminal justice system. That makes me, I think, uniquely qualified to be the chief law enforcement officer of Alabama.”

Nicrosi appeared in Cullman as part of a campaign visit with member of the Cullman County Democrats, whom she addressed at their President’s Day breakfast meeting. Nicrosi also visited with sheriff Tyler Roden during her swing through the area. 

Citing a communication breakdown between two strong personalities, Nicrosi said conflicts such as the one between Troy King and governor Bob Riley, who are at odds over the interpretation and enforcement of state electronic gaming law, would never have materialized under her watch.

“As AG, you’re the top law enforcement officer and you’re supposed to handle those things,” Nicrosi said. “I don’t foresee any kind of situation in which the governor would have to create a task force, or the like, because I would communicate with our governor and we would have a working relationship. I’m not Troy King.”

“I think what you’re seeing now is a lack of communication; a lot of rhetoric and not much working together,” elaborated Nicrosi. “You don’t ever get to a point where you don’t listen and don’t talk to each other. When you are holding office, you are working for the state of Alabama — you have to put your personalilties, your parties, your rhetoric aside and be a professional.

Campaigning on a party platform creates a politically-charged environment that Nicrosi said must be separated from the actual office of Attorney General, Nicrosi observed.

“The AG position is a little bit different than the other offices,” she said. “You can’t be driven by politics; it cannot run your decision making. You do things instead as a prosecutor, even if it costs you politically.”

Party politics aside, the state’s chief prosecutor is likely to make many enemies, a fact that Nicrosi said demands courage and thick skin.

“I always found over the years that, when you do your job very well as a prosecutor, you usually make people mad,” Nicrosi said. “It may be the judge; it may be a family; it may be a whole community; it may be the press. But you have to take it, and you have to get up the next day and do it again and do the job, no matter what.”

Also seeking the democratic nomination for Attorney General is James Anderson of Montgomery and Giles Perkins of Birmingham. Luther Strange of Birmingham is seeking to oust Troy King for the republican nomination.



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.

Text Only
Top News