Patrick Cooper

Patrick C. Cooper (born 1958 in Mobile) is an attorney and a candidate in the 2007 Birmingham mayoral election.

Cooper is the son of Marine General and former Alabama Representative and Ambassador Gary Cooper. He graduated from Yale College and the Yale Law School, where he lettered in basketball and also ran on the track team. He flunked out during his sophomore year and took a job in Washington D.C. as a construction worker for 18 months before gaining readmittance.

After graduating he worked as a clerk for Sam C. Pointer, Jr, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He then became a partner at the firm of Maynard Cooper & Gale before taking a leave of absence to run for Mayor of Birmingham. He has also served as an Alabama Bar Examiner, as a member of the ABA Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession, and as a director of the Commonwealth National Bank.

In 2006 Cooper founded Birmingham Vision, a non-profit which hires schoolchildren to clean up neighborhoods during the summer and distributes fans to elderly residents without air conditioning. He also coaches the Alabama Roadrunners girls' basketball team.

Cooper was the first candidate to declare for the 2007 mayoral race. The primary topics Cooper has talked about in his campaign are vision and leadership, crime, mass transit, and neighborhood improvement. He has raised the most campaign funding of any candidate thus far, and was the first to air television commercials in the race.

Cooper is divorced and has three children, Sophie, Celia and Sam.

References

• Cooper, Lauren B. (December 1, 2006) Cooper to run for mayor. Birmingham Business Journal.
• Camp, Holly (n. d.) "Perspective: Patrick Cooper." Portico Magazine.
• Kennedy, Joey (April 23, 2007) "Patrick Cooper running for mayor as outsider." Birmingham News.
• Bryant, Joseph D. (September 2, 2007) "Hopefuls have just weeks to win votes." Birmingham News.

External links

• Cooper for Mayor campaign website
• Cooper's responses to a Birmingham News questionnaire for the 2007 mayoral election