Charlotte's Mayoral Future

[voyager12]

I think that is a good picture of McCrory. Charlotte being mentioned in a magazine other than a business journal is great. Our Mayor should be applauded for coming out of the closet as a metrosexual.

[Raintree21]

Beverly Earle, Mayor McCrory's Democratic challenger, is traveling throughout the city today trying to drum up support for her campaign.

[nyxmike]

Beverly Earle, Mayor McCrory's Democratic challenger, is traveling throughout the city today trying to drum up support for her campaign.

[Raintree21]

A Charlotte Observer/WCNC News poll found 70 percent of likely Republican and unaffiliated voters favored McCrory, while 17 percent backed school board member Ken Gjertsen.

[Raintree21]

Early Voting for the primary elections is today and Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Board of Elections, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at library branches. On Saturday the times are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at all locations.

[Raintree21]

If anyone on here happens to be a Republican, don't forget that today you can vote in the primary elections.

[voyager12]

If Gjertsen does not get completely trounced by McCrory today I will be quite shocked. Once this is over with I hope there is at least one public debate between McCrory and Earle to exchange views on how to best improve this town.

[Raintree21]

Talk about low turnouts. When I went to vote today at 10:45, I was voter #15 for my precinct. The apathy in our city/nation when it comes to elections is pathetic.

[Charlotte_native]

Talk about low turnouts. When I went to vote today at 10:45, I was voter #15 for my precinct. The apathy in our city/nation when it comes to elections is pathetic.

[Spartan]

Why are primaries for political parties held in this manner anyway? For one since Independents can vote in Republican primaries couldn't Democrats change affliation and direct Republican candidates if properly organized?? that would make for an interesting campaign, make them run their worst candidate...

Of elections, I'm not surprised that these have low turnouts. People don't pay much attention anyway. I don't see why the city spends $400,000 to help a private party decide who should run for office. Let the parties take care of this or at least pay for it.

[Charlotte_native]

^It gives people a chance to voice their opinion if there are many candidates. Other places do it differently. For exmaple, in Louisiana, they use the runoff system, where anyone who wants to run gets their name in the hat on election day, then you take the top guys and have one (or more) run off elections. Another example is in SC you don't register by party so you can vote in which ever primary you want (its like everyone is an independant).

Technically political parties dont have to do primaries, they can just nominate whoever they want- but changing the system would shine a bad light on a party that decided to do that.

You can argue that in theory someone could change parties and affect the vote, but thats highly unlikely. If its ever happened then its very rare.

[Raintree21]

From Charlotte.com:

With 92 percent of precincts reporting, McCrory leads Gjertsen with 67 percent of the vote to Gjertsen's 33 percent.

[Raintree21]

It's official, McCrory won 67 percent to 33 percent over Republican Challenger Ken Gjertsen. His next challenge will be on November 6th in the main election against Beverly Earle.

[elvigy]

I'll make a prediction here and now that the general election results will be pretty similar (67% to 33%) as well, with McCrory being the winner.

[MZT]

"McCrory fatigue" is real, but I don't think Gjertsen could convince people he was serious... and he was too much of a single issue candidiate.

He mainly got the protest vote. If he had gotten only 25%, it would not have surprised me.

[NCN8ive]

I'll make a prediction here and now that the general election results will be pretty similar (67% to 33%) as well, with McCrory being the winner.

[voyager12]

McCrory will probably steamroll Beverly Earle. Even though I can't stand him I have to admire the McCrory Machine. So many people in this town worship him like an idol. I will never understand it.....

[1979Heel]

McCrory will probably steamroll Beverly Earle. Even though I can't stand him I have to admire the McCrory Machine. So many people in this town worship him like an idol. I will never understand it.....

[voyager12]

I tend to let my emotions cloud what should be detached political analysis. It's true that McCrory has to play to his base and gay concerns in this town are so niche and completely off radar to the majority of Charlotteans that he loses absolutely nothing by consistently ignoring us. That's politics for you. From a Democratic perspective it would have been helpful if Gjertsen had won primary. He is further to the right than McCrory and would have made Earle seem more appealing to centrist or moderate Republicans. As it stands now Earle's chances are clearly quite bleak.

[Raintree21]

I hope Gjertsen's followers remove the plaque of signs that have inundated south Charlotte soon. On the same note, I wish the city would enforce the sign policy and penalize people that leave signs out for too long.

[voyager12]

While this thread is focused on Charlotte's future governance I think discussing the past may help put things in context. I for one don't know too much about the history. Am I correct that Harvey Gantt was the last and only Democratic Mayor? Was his tenure considered a success or did he lose reelection? How was Sue Myrick regarded? How was McCrory recruited to run? Was he involved in politics before? Finally, it's interesting that McCrory and Earle both support the transit tax. Perhaps this will split more of the vote that would automatically go to McCrory.

[Charlotte_native]

While this thread is focused on Charlotte's future governance I think discussing the past may help put things in context. I for one don't know too much about the history. Am I correct that Harvey Gantt was the last and only Democratic Mayor? Was his tenure considered a success or did he lose reelection?

[elvigy]

Actually, Gantt ran against Jesse Helms twice for the US Senate. He lost both times, though it was fairly close. He was pretty popular as a mayor. I doubt he was the only Democrat ever elected. Like most Southern areas, Charlotte and NC was heavily democratic up until the civil rights era. I'm sure during those early days most of the mayors of Charlotte were Democratic, as were our Senators and Reps. It wasn't until the civil rights backlash against the Democrats in the southern states that the South, as an area, went heavily Republican.

[Raintree21]

Wikipedia had this for 20th and 21st century Charlotte Mayors (not sure why only some of them have party affiliation listed):

J.D. McCall (1899-1901)

Peter Marshall Brown (1901-1905)

S.S. McNinch (1905-1907)

T.S. Franklin (1907-1909)

T.W. Hawkins (1909-1911)

Charles A. Bland (1911-1915)

T.L. Kirkpatrick (1915-1917)

F.R. McNinch (1917-1920)

John M. Wilson (1920-1921)

James O. Walker (1921-1924)

Harvey W. Moore (1924-1926)

David M. Abernathy (1926-1927)

F. Marion Redd (1927-1929)

George E. Wilson, Jr. (1929-1931)

Charles E. Lambeth (1931-1933)

Arthur E. Wearn (1933-1935)

Ben Elbert Douglas, Sr. (1935-1941) (Democrat)

E. McA. Currie (1941-1943)

H.H. Baxter (1943-1949)

Victor Shaw (1949-1953)

Philip Van Every (1953-1957)

James Saxon Smith (1957-1961)

Stanford R. Brookshire (1961-1969)

John M. Belk (1969-1977) (Democrat)

Kenneth R. Harris (1977-1979) (Republican)

H. Edward Knox (1979-1983) (Democrat)

Harvey Gantt (1983-1987) (Democrat)

Sue Myrick (1987-1991) (Republican)

Richard Vinroot (1991-1995) (Republican)

Patrick McCrory (1995-current) (Republican)

Don't forget that the definition of being a Democrat vs. being a Republican has changed over the last century. Also, some of these Mayors were appointed due to resignations or openings.

[Charlotte_native]

Actually, Gantt ran against Jesse Helms twice for the US Senate. He lost both times, though it was fairly close. He was pretty popular as a mayor. I doubt he was the only Democrat ever elected. Like most Southern areas, Charlotte and NC was heavily democratic up until the civil rights era. I'm sure during those early days most of the mayors of Charlotte were Democratic, as were our Senators and Reps. It wasn't until the civil rights backlash against the Democrats in the southern states that the South, as an area, went heavily Republican.