QUINCY —

Independent Norfolk County district attorney candidate Jack Coffey is polite about it, but he’s swinging back at Democrat Michael Morrissey’s low view of his qualifications.

Last week, Morrissey, a 34-year State House veteran and lifelong Quincy resident, said Coffey never managed a large staff while a Suffolk County assistant district attorney, and that for the last 15 years as a criminal defense attorney has been “fighting to keep drug dealers and sex offenders on the streets.”

On Tuesday, the former prosecutor and Dedham resident told a Patriot Ledger editorial board that he’s the one with direct experience on both sides of criminal cases.

“He (Morrissey) has absolutely no criminal trial experience,” Coffey said.

“He represents insurance companies,” Coffey said, referring to the civil law firm Morrissey founded in the 1980s. “If you do that, you get to pick and choose your clients. In the district attorney’s office, the cases come to you.”

Coffey declined to say whether he considers Morrissey’s “drug dealers and sex offenders” remark a cheap shot.

“To say that I’ve represented bad people – yeah, I have,” he said. “We play a role in the criminal defense system. If everybody plays their role, justice happens.”

“I’ve seen the system from both sides,” he said. “You can’t get that experience at the State House.”

Morrissey has touted his work on a range of law enforcement legislation. Coffey said he went into private practice to better support his young children.

While Morrissey has run for office since 1976, never losing, this is Coffey’s first try. He says he wants to bring a prosecutor’s background to the Norfolk County district attorney’s office, as Plymouth County and most other counties have.

“Only Norfolk County has a history of electing politicians,” he said.

Coffey said he would increase the focus on drug dealing, because many robberies and other crimes are committed by drug users in need of money to buy drugs. He also wants to set up an around-the-clock access line for local police, so they can call an assistant DA at any hour to be sure they’re following proper procedures for traffic stops and responses to other incidents.

The following of proper procedures keeps evidence from being suppressed when charges go to court, and thus improves conviction rates, Coffey said.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com.

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This year has brought out a number of interesting first time candidates, folks encouraged by the fact that it’s an anything-can-happen time.

Among those who heard that call and stepped up is Jack Coffey, a long-time former prosecutor, running as an independent for Norfolk County District Attorney.

Coffey, a resident of Needham, served as an assistant D.A. in Suffolk County from 1987 to 1995, handling more than a thousand criminal cases. During that time he spent a year as a special assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the Organized Crime Narcotic Drug Task Force.

Even after returning to private practice, Coffey has been called a number of times to serve as a special prosecutor in other counties around the state. In short, Coffey may be a political novice, but he’s a prosecutor’s prosecutor.

His campaign has emphasized both the prosecution of drug crimes – especially those involving heroin and Oxycontin – and his hoped-for effort to educate parents and students about the dangers to their lives and reputations of drug use and how those criminal court records can come back to haunt careers. He also wants to set up a rapid response homicide team.

Jack Coffey is exactly the kind of guy who’s needed in Norfolk County, and not just another pol interested in padding his pension.