Birmingham lawyer Patrick Cooper believes - he really does believe - he'll be the next mayor of Birmingham.

"People are responding to our message," says Cooper. "I'm not a politician. Everybody else running has been in office for years, and they haven'tdone anything. We're a fresh face."

Well, that's true enough. Cooper's face is so fresh, in fact, that many Birmingham residents don't know who he is. So here's the skinny on a thin guy nicknamed "Coop":

Cooper is a third-generation Alabamian. He's a two-time graduate of Yale - the college and law school. He lettered in basketball and ran track at Yale, and he clerked for U.S. District Judge Sam Pointer. He's worked on Wall Street and in San Francisco, but decided to return to his home state in 1994. "I made a conscious decision to come back, and I've always lived in the city limits," he says. Cooper is involved in the community through Birmingham Vision, a nonprofit organization he founded that hires young people to clean up neighborhoods, and through coaching the Alabama Roadrunner Nike basketball team made up of high-school girl all-stars from around the state. Cooper is a heavy hitter in the law, too, becoming the first African-American partner at the law firm of Maynard Cooper & Gale. (Cooper is not the Cooper in the law firm's name.) But Cooper withdrew his partnership when he decided to run for mayor. "I'm going to lead by example," Cooper says. "I'm not going to ask people to be with me if I don't lead by example." Cooper is referring, of course, to those members of the Birmingham City Council who also are running for mayor. "Right now, it's like half the City Council throws their name in there to run, and it does a disservice to the city," Cooper says. At least three council members - Valerie Abbott, William Bell and President Carole Smitherman - are thought to be sure candidates for mayor. Cooper believes having the mayor's election on a different schedule than the City Council elections allows council members a free shot at the office, and he's right. They can enter the mayor's race without giving up their council seats. After they're defeated (Bell and Smitherman are previous losers in the mayor's race), they hop right back on the council dais, like they never left. Because they haven't.

Cooper also is recently divorced. Asked whether that will have an impact on his campaign, Cooper says he doesn't think so: "My ex-wife is my biggest supporter," he says. "She's terrific. I think it's a nonissue."

But Cooper knows such personal issues are likely to surface in these days of brutal campaigns. "I'm prepared for that," Cooper says. "People come up and just unload on you." Cooper says not too long ago, somebody even tried to pick a fight with him at a local bar. Of course, Cooper didn't take the bait. Unlike some of the other candidates who are reluctant to say any one issue is the most important, Cooper has no trouble identifying a No. 1: crime. Cooper has a six-point crime plan, and he's determined to make changes within the first 100 days of his administration.

"This mayor (Bernard Kincaid) denies a crime problem," Cooper says. "Every mayor in a major city who makes crime fighting a priority can knock it down." Among the main points of Cooper's crime plan are to make city police officers among the highest paid in the area, but also to hold them accountable for their conduct.

Cooper doesn't ignore other concerns, either, such as improving city schools, reclaiming city neighborhoods, jobs and economic development. He says he'll be a hands-on mayor, but not hands-on in the mold of Kincaid. "There's a point where you are so hands-on, you become a micromanager," Cooper says, referring to Kincaid. "It's one thing to be hands-on, but it's another thing when you can't make a decision." Cooper has seemingly tireless energy and enthusiasm, and he says he's doing everything he knows to do to get his name out there. He's already raised more than $225,000 for his campaign, and refers to a recent poll that shows him doing well among likely candidates. The poll was commissioned by Cooper, so the results aren't a surprise. "I'm the only one running who has never run for office or held office or who has not made being in elected office a career," Cooper says. "I have zero interest in running for anything else." Find out more at www.cooperformayor.com.

And that's some of the scoop on Coop. Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is an editorial writer and editor of the Sunday Commentary section for The News. This is another in a series of his conversations with prospective candidates for Birmingham mayor. E-mail: jkennedy@bhamnews.com.