Josh Stein: Keeping Government Data Breaches Secret "Sounds Like A Good Idea" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    News Release:

NCGOP Responds To Former John Edwards Campaign Manager and State Senator's Campaign To Succeed Roy Cooper

    Raleigh, N.C.     Today, the North Carolina Republican Party slammed State Senator Josh Stein as he announced a campaign to succeed his former boss and Democrat candidate for governor, Roy Cooper:

    "Stein is a self-proclaimed progressive who brags about being John Edwards' first hire and campaign manager when he ran for U.S. Senate. And as senior deputy attorney general for Roy Cooper and Mike Easley, Josh Stein was a part of a culture of incompetence and injustice that put politics above the best interests of North Carolina. While the Cooper-Stein team were defending Mike Easley and the political machine in Raleigh, state government became more corrupt and secretive. It's no wonder Senator Stein would now like to succeed his former boss to continue his legacy of incompetence and bring North Carolina backwards." - The North Carolina Republican Party

    BACKGROUND:

    In Raleigh, the Cooper-Stein team fought to keep government data breaches secret from the public when their personal information had been lost, stolen or exposed. Stein said it "sounds like a good idea."

    "N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper proposed legislation last year that allowed government agencies to avoid reporting data-security breaches" (ANDREW SHAIN, "N.C. OFFICIALS CAN GO SILENT ON DATA BREACHES," The Charlotte Observer, June 28, 2006)

    "At the time the bill was written, the priority was changing business practices in the months after the public learned about breaches at data broker ChoicePoint and Bank of America, said Josh Stein, senior deputy attorney general who heads the consumer protection division." (ANDREW SHAIN, "N.C. OFFICIALS CAN GO SILENT ON DATA BREACHES," The Charlotte Observer, June 28, 2006)

    "The government exemption is now state law - meaning that school districts, state agencies and city departments don't have to tell residents their personal data has been lost, stolen or exposed." (ANDREW SHAIN, "N.C. OFFICIALS CAN GO SILENT ON DATA BREACHES," The Charlotte Observer, June 28, 2006)

    Stein: "This sounds like a good idea." (ANDREW SHAIN, "N.C. OFFICIALS CAN GO SILENT ON DATA BREACHES," The Charlotte Observer, June 28, 2006)

    Stein: "In 1997, I was John Edwards' first hire in his U.S. Senate campaign." - Indy Week, 4/23/2008

    Josh Stein "had done more to get John Edwards elected senator than anyone"

    "A case in point was Josh Stein, who had done more to get John Edwards elected senator than anyone because he had run the Senate campaign." (Andrew Young, "The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down")

    Mrs. Edwards believed Stein kept things from her when he served as acting chief of staff to Former U.S. Senator John Edwards

    "Josh had served as "acting" chief of staff or deputy chief of staff. But he never got the chief of staff job on a permanent basis because of Mrs. Edwards. She told me that she believed that Josh kept things from her, and that made her suspicious. (In fact, Senator Edwards often told key staffers to withhold things from his wife.) Eventually, her disapproval would drive him back to North Carolina, where he won election to the State Senate." (Andrew Young, "The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down")

    Contact: Kara Carter
            NCGOP Press Secretary
        kara.carter@ncgop.org