The state of North Carolina will see many municipal elections on Tuesday, but few will probably be as closely watched as the one to replace current mayor Pat McCrory.
McCrory is the longest-serving mayor in the Queen City's history as he is now finishing up his seventh two-year term. The current election will mark the first time that McCrory has not been on the municipal ballot in 20 years.
The Republican Charlotte mayor ran for governor in 2008, but lost to current governor Beverly Perdue.
McCrory is an alumnus of Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC (outside Greensboro and High Point) and Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. He worked for Duke Energy for many years before turning his attention to civic politics.
McCrory has managed to become a long-serving mayor in spite of the fact that Democrats and independents in Charlotte outnumber Republicans by a three-to-one margin. According to today's "Charlotte Observer," the mayor has a sixty percent approval rating.
The mayor is credited with lowering Charlotte's violent crime rate by adding 330 new police officers. He is also lauded for bringing the NASCAR Hall of Fame to the Queen City.
Charlotte is the 18th largest city in America with a population of 687,456. The city's suburbs now stretch into South Carolina, and include my mom's hometown of Rock Hill, SC, which was once a college town with a farming community. The city has grown by 20 percent since McCrory was first elected.
UPDATE: Democrat Anthony Foxx won the highly contested election.
The race for McCrory's succesor will between Democrat Anthony Foxx, and African-American who is 38, and Republican John Lassiter who is 55.
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