The Queen City has witnessed the end of two decades of Republican Mayoral leadership with the election of Democrat Anthony Foxx last night. Foxx beat out Republican John Lassiter 51% to 49% in a squeaker of a race. This was a weird race for Mayor because it really didn’t get interesting until the end (accusations of dirty politics and someone dressed in a chicken costume yada yada yada..). There were some similarities in this race to the 2008 Presidential Election. You had an older white man with experience running against a younger black man without experience. I have to admit that I was skeptical of Foxx’s chances of winning. I knew he would need a large black vote along with a good percentage of Independents (“enough” registered democrats and independents helped him). I suspected that voter turn out would be low (and it was) and that would play against Foxx (but it didn’t). In all of the debates that I have watched, Lassiter always looked sharper than Foxx. In the last televised debate, Foxx showed more of his personality. Before the last debate he always seemed subdued and came off very wonkish. Actually both candidates came across as the guy you would most want to live next door to. So if you take away experience, you end up with the same guy. But all of that is in the past and Foxx is the new mayor. As citizens of the city of Charlotte, we should now come together and rally behind Foxx.
My personal notes from Tuesday’s election –
*In my District, there were originally 2 people running for the Board of Education. Kimberly Mitchell-Walker dropped out before Tuesday so that left Richard McElrath as the only person on the ballot besides the “write in option.” McElrath beat Mitchell Walker 51% to 47%. You are probably thinking that means McElrath is an unpopular guy. What clown runs a close race with someone that’s not even running? This might not necessarily be the case. Many people in my district were solely focused on Mayor and City Council seats that they didn’t do their due diligence on School Board Election research. Some people didn’t know anything about the people running or their platforms. Also they didn’t even know that Mitchell-Walker had dropped out of the race.
*Compared to the Presidential Election in 2008 the voter turnout was low. I know I’m naïve but the way people voted in 2008 should be the way they vote every time. Even with over 24,000 people voting early we still had low numbers.
Precinct 141 had a voter turnout of 2% (FYI – 50% of the people in that district are non-white).
Precinct 121 had a voter turnout of 30% (FYI – 10% of the people in that district are non-white).
Precinct 48 had one of the highest turnouts of the day with 51%. Keep in mind that is only one precinct out of over 200 precincts.
*The demographics in Charlotte are changing. We are getting more minorities and whites from other states in the country. This is changing the voting landscape of the south. It’s not as conservative as it once was and Independents (or unaffiliated as it’s called in N.C.) are becoming a larger group (FYI - which I am a part of).
5 comments:
Let me first say, Congratulations to Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter for running smooth, clean and similar campaigns. Even though only one of them took home the One Ring, I firmly believe they both won. Call it Foxx-iter when it hits the office.
Secondly, let's see what A. Foxx is going to do with the rock before you people jump all on his jock strap and scratch his itch. I know you cats will love him simply because he is black, young and married but this is politics, not the Newlywed Game [nothing like a black man being married for every black woman to love him, great gimmick].
Now to my daily spewing of HATE. The total number of Charlotte voters that came out in this election paled in comparison to the national race that crowned Barack their King. WTF? Sooooo, only do black folk not vote in the rain, they only vote in droves when an Obama is on the ballot. Typical. You got what you wanted and now the high is gone. Need more high? Get more crack! No Obama or no Obama relative? Crack is now wack. Suckers.
This City is still trying to define it's image and identity. Hopefully it will find a smidgen of it's voice in Jamie Foxx...I mean Anthony Foxx.
HATE NOW or HATE LATER. I choose both.
P.H.D - Being black won't help Foxx if he slips up on the job. He will be one and done if he doesn't handle his business. Don't you know it's better to run with a wife on your arm? Everybody (not just black women) loves a family man. Even single women....
Local elections are MORE important than national elections.
Besides the military - Who is answerable directly to Obama?
I hope Foxx does better for you than have most of our local Black politicians.
UglyBlackJohn - Voting in this country is so shameful. Local elections deal with Taxes, Roads, Education, Prison and Services. All improtant issues that touch us everyday. Yet people came out in droves last year and expect Obama to give them a job, provide quality education for their kid, keep their kid out of prison and make sure that the Bus runs on time. Shameful...
Citizen Ojo:
As a person who is familiar with the City of Charlotte (me) - could you tell me exactly what the impetus was for the Black voter to choose to dispose of Lassiter?
A recent report showed that Charlotte (and Raleigh) had fared rather well, comparatively in this present economic climate.
Comparing this with certain other cities where DESPITE the erosion of their economic interests - the Black voter STILL votes to retain the Democratic machine in power - it seems pretty clear to me that there is a heavy dose of BLACK VOTER NULLIFICATION in place around the nation.
What say you?
"How does the Black voter express DISSATISFACTION with a Democratic machine that has failed them as well as at minimum ambiguity for a Republican administration to which they can't pin their grief upon?"
I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO VOTE REPUBLICAN.
I am ONLY seeking to get someone to write out the rule that the Black voter follows.
It is most certainly not clear.
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