While there are a few semi-autonomous cities left in Mecklenburg County, the reality is that the County and Charlotte are close to unified. The city runs the police department, water and sewage and police, and the County runs the schools, courts and jails.
In 2012, the Democrats held the Barack Obama renomination convention here, at which he declared that Charlotte is a wonderful place and Democrats should move here to move NC into the reliably Democrat column. At the time, the Governor was a first term Democrat woman and the legislature was controlled by Democrats (many of whom are still Conservatives)
Republicans play very little role in local politics in North Carolina. The legacy of Democratic domination from their Jim Crow era laws lives on. When Countess and I went to visit the Mecklenburg Republican Party web site to see about the primary, the only event listed yesterday was the Republican Women’s group was having its $20 monthly lunch in Huntersville, up near the affluent Lake Norman area.
Our ballot had only two items – US House District 9 and our NC State Senator. The Incumbant easily won the NC Senate race. He was the author of HB2 and was challenged by a woman who has a gay son.
The Republicans ran no candidates for any of the County offices. The most important was the office of Sheriff. The white incumbant was trounced by a former CMPD detective who ran on the platform of ending the practice of checking people arrested against Federal immigration databases.
The House race is the only one that may affect you. Robert Pittinger just barely won his primary two years ago during a strange election caused by a federal judge throwing out the state drawn district map. Our district runs all the way from South Charlotte to East of Fayetteville. South Charlotte is rich and white and moderate. The rest of the district is rural, very Conservative, poor, religious and hates everything about Charlotte.
Pittinger lost the primary last night to a Southern Baptist minister who runs a mega church in Charlotte. Pittinger ran on “I am here to support Donald Trump” and lost by about 800 votes.
The Democrats are running a man in the general election who joined the Marines after 9/11 and served in the surge in Iraq. He received more votes in the almost uncontested Democratic Party primary than the Republicans had combined. He exudes being a moderate, but if elected would increase the chances of changing control of the US House.
I’ve always wondered if the people of “the rest of the district” who hate everything about Charlotte refer to the people of Charlotte as Charlottetons. ; )
Maybe its a bit like Tampa and Tampons. 😉