Charlotteans looking for door No. 3?
More than a third of Charlotteans have no preference in the mayoral race between Republican John Lassiter and Democrat Anthony Foxx, according to a new Elon University Poll released today.
The poll's analysts said the two candidates have yet to differentiate themselves in the eyes of residents. The poll, conducted in cooperation with Johnson C. Smith University, was part of a larger survey of Mecklenburg County residents. Complete results will be released tomorrow at Johnson C. Smith.
The poll did not ask a head-to-head question in the mayoral race. Instead it asked if Charlotte residents would approve or disapprove of each man as mayor. Thirty-nine percent said they would approve of Foxx. Forty-four percent would approve of Lassiter. The margin of error is 5.9 percentage points. And 35 percent said they were undecided about which party they'll support in November.
The Elon poll shows Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, faring better in Mecklenburg than the state as a whole. In the survey, 35 percent of county residents approve of her performance while 48 percent disapprove. More than half of county residents don't like the way she has handled the state's budget and economy. The margin of error in the county-wide sample is 4.9 percentage points. One poll earlier this month by a Democratic firm found her approval at 26 percent. A survey by a conservative group put it at 29 percent.
Foxx, Lassiter: Voting together, growing apart
It started with a simple question: What about your record distinguishes you from your opponent?
Their answers this week highlighted growing tensions between Charlotte mayoral candidates Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter as their records - and words - come into sharper focus.
Replying to the question at a forum for black lawyers, Foxx criticized Lassiter's votes on two issues: the CIAA basketball tournament and the Afro-American Cultural Center. Lassiter, a Republican, accused his Democratic opponent of bending the facts.
On Friday their war of words escalated.
"(Foxx) is well aware of my years of service in the African American community and is now spreading falsehoods to discredit my record and chose an African American audience to begin that attack," Lassiter told the Observer.
Replied Foxx: "One of the things I've learned about very good politicians who have been entrenched in office for a long time is, when their records get called out they start attacking the messenger."
Increasingly, Foxx has tried to underscore his differences with his fellow City Council member. And in the four years they've been in office together, they have parted ways on some important votes.
One was the 2006 budget. It provided for 70 new police officers, but also raised the property tax for the first time in at least a decade. Another was this week's vote to override Mayor Pat McCrory's veto of $4.5 million to design a streetcar that won't be built for years.
But Foxx and Lassiter have often found themselves on the same side.
The two voted together on many issues that otherwise split the council, from NASCAR Hall of Fame funding, which they supported, to council pay raises, which they opposed. Not only do they back the current transit tax, but even voted to seek legislative authority to possibly increase it.
"I don't think there's really any difference," says Martin Davis, who lost to Lassiter in the GOP primary.
Foxx acknowledges such sentiments.
"I continue to hear in the community that we're the same candidate, and there's not a whisker of difference between us," he says. "There's a lot of difference."
Split of CIAA
Meeting in closed session in 2007, the council reauthorized a $200,000 contribution to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a group of historically black colleges that brought its basketball tournament to Charlotte in 2006.
The vote was 9-2 with Foxx in support and Lassiter against.
The issue didn't come up in public session until February, when the council members voted unanimously for the reauthorization.
Lassiter, who had long supported the tournament in Charlotte, says the closed session vote reflected a difference on how - not whether - the city would make its contribution. He says he wanted the city-funded Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority to pay it, not the city itself.
"It was a negotiating point," Lassiter says. "But I never lost my commitment to bring the CIAA here... He said I voted against bringing the CIAA here, which is false."
The minutes of the 2007 closed session don't reflect any discussion. CRVA head Tim Newman says, "Both Anthony and John have been supportive of the CIAA."
In 2007, a divided council also approved the framework of an agreement to lease the Afro-American Cultural Center to a group affiliated with the adjacent Stonewall AME Zion Church.
The center is being replaced by the new Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, scheduled to open next month. The 2007 proposal called for leasing the building for $1 a year while the city continued to pay annual maintenance costs of $50,000.
"It is premature," Lassiter said at the time. "We're in no rush here. We've got virtually two years."
He asked for more time to study it. Foxx declined and pushed for a vote. In a 6-5 vote that generally fell along party lines, he and other Democrats voted for the proposal. Lassiter and other Republicans voted against.
The negotiations eventually led to a proposal to sell the center to the church for $590,000. Council approved that last April. Then, Democrat Susan Burgess applauded Lassiter and other members of her committee who recommended the sale. Lassiter called it "a much cleaner transaction" than the proposed lease.
The sale "gives us dollars that we didn't expect and relieves us for half a million in operating expense over the next ten years," he said. "I view this kind of as found money."
Foxx has a different take.
"John has a reflex sometimes that says 'no' and later he decides differently," Foxx says. "And sometimes his second reaction is better than his first."
Stylistic differences
Some differences are clearly partisan. One was the 2006 budget vote.
Foxx and other Democrats voted for a spending plan that gave the police chief the 70 new officers he'd asked for and allowed the city to deal with backlogs on road-building and resurfacing. It also raised property taxes 9 percent, the first increase in years.
Foxx calls the budget "an example of reversing neglect."
Lassiter and other Republicans favored a budget that would have provided fewer new police officers but no tax increase. He blasted what he called "unnecessary and unmanaged government spending" he said had nothing to do with police, roads or neighborhoods.
Other times, their differences have had to do with style.
When the council debated a bicycle master plan last year, Lassiter bombarded the staff with technical questions. Some were answered, some not. He asked for more time to review it.
At the time, Foxx acknowledged Lassiter's "grasp of detail." But he called the plan "aspirational."
"It sets forth a goal," he said, pushing for a vote. The plan passed 7-4.
Both candidates suggest such votes illustrate their approach to leadership.
"The way I approach issues," says Lassiter, "is based upon my experience, my ability to work through complex financial terms and my consistency trying to find ways to spend money on pressing needs and not on 'wants.' "
Says Foxx: "There's a vision gap between John and me that's as big as the Grand Canyon."
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Sources: News & Observer, Under The Dome, Charlotte Observer, Google Maps
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