GOP pranks Cooper on April Fool’s Day

It might be a good day to stay off Twitter and, while you’re at it, most other social media — except for Dome, of course, which you can trust — on this April Fool’s Day.

The day kicked off with tweets and an emailed news release announcing Attorney General Roy Cooper’s official announcement that he’s running for governor. But the joke was revealed by the second paragraph in the release:

“I have decided that it’s about time I run for governor because I’ve been attacking Governor McCrory for months, and hey, why not now?” said Roy Cooper. “I just hope the media doesn’t ask me any questions about my record or where I stand on any issues.”

The fun continued with a website launched to announce Cooper’s “team”: Statewide co-chairs former governors Bev Perdue and Mike Easely. Throw in Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama topping of a “policy team” list of North Carolina liberals most despised by the state Republican Party: UNC professor Gene Nichol, N.C. Policy Watch Chris Fitzsimon, Think NC First’s Justin Guillory, Progress NC’s Gerrick Brenner and the NAACP’s Rev. William Barber, along with a few other who’s-who on the left.

It’s the handiwork of the N.C. GOP and its newly hired senior communications adviser Ricky Diaz:

http://roycooperforgovernor.com/news.html

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 11:32 AM with the headline "GOP pranks Cooper on April Fool’s Day."