Compretta Also Chimes In On Facts

Alben Hopkins Admits Padding Resume
Hopkins claims credit for experience he doesn’t have

It's beginning to look like our statewide Republicans have a problem with the truth.

Al Hopkins listed his having "served the law for 42 years" as a qualification for attorney general.

The Hood Campaign issued this release:

Attorney general challenger Alben Hopkins has served as chief judge of the Mississippi Court of Military Appeals since 1996 – a court that has not heard one single case or met one single time in the past decade.

Yet Hopkins, in his latest campaign commercial now airing, claims: “As chief judge of our top military court, Al Hopkins has served the law for 42 years.”

Hopkins finally admitted his resume enhancement when questioned by a reporter Monday at a press luncheon hosted by the Stennis Institute.

“Once again, Alben Hopkins’ resume does not equate with the actual facts,” said Jonathan Compretta, campaign manager for Attorney General Jim Hood. “Mr. Hopkins’ limited experience for the job he now seeks is buried among the negative rhetoric of his campaign.”

According to Mississippi Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Chiquita Pendleton, the Mississippi Military Department’s Court of Military Appeals, on which Hopkins claims service as chief judge, has not heard a single case since Hopkins joined the court in 1996. Additionally, “no salary has been paid in the last 10 years, as court has not met,” according to a letter from Staff Sgt. Pendleton dated June 6, 2007.

So while Attorney General Jim Hood has spent more than a decade prosecuting murders, rapists, abusers of the elderly and child molesters, Alben Hopkins has sat on a court that never convenes.

“This begs the question: What experience and qualifications does Mr. Hopkins really have to qualify him as attorney general of Mississippi?” Compretta asked. “We believe the voters have a right to know.

“There’s an old saying that applies to make-believe cowboys who dress and talk the part, pretending to be what they aren’t,” Compretta noted. “Alben Hopkins is ‘All Hat, No Cattle.’”