A rematch on Charlotte City Council

What’s happening: Candidate filing in all races ended Friday. The last day of filing featured several high-profile announcements in the at-large council race, including:

• Former mayor Patrick Cannon, who was convicted of taking bribes and served time in prison.
• James “Smuggie” Mitchell, who abruptly resigned from council last year after concerns of a potential conflict of interest emerged over a job he took leading construction company RJ Leeper, which does business with the city.

Why it matters: Changing the status quo has become one of those buzzy phrases that politicians and activists alike use in Charlotte. But it’s critical in a place where the status quo has left large swaths of the population out of the city’s explosive growth.

Yet, every single candidate running in the at-large race on the Democratic side has served on Charlotte City Council.

Who’s running: There are six Democrats and five Republicans running for four at-large seats on Charlotte City Council. The other seven seats on council are elected by districts.

On the Democrat side, the candidates are:

• Larken Egleston, currently the District 1 representative.
• Dimple Ajmera, who is running for reelection.
• Braxton Winston, who is running for reelection.
• Cannon, who served as mayor in late 2013 and part of 2014 before he resigned. Before that, he was on council.
• James “Smuggie” Mitchell, who was in his third term as an at-large member before his resignation last year. Before that, he represented District 2.
• LaWana Mayfield, who represented District 3 for four terms and lost a bid for an at-large seat in 2019.

The Republicans who have filed include: Kyle Luebke, David Merrill, Charlie Mulligan, Carrie Olinski and David Michael Rice.

• None of them have served on council previously.

What they’re saying: Winston, an activist-turned-council member elected in 2017, has campaigned on disrupting the way things have always been done. But he said challenging the status quo is about new ideas, not necessarily new people.

• “You have people that have been here for a long time that have tried new things, and you have people that have just got here that have certainly, while they’ve tried good things, have also kept certain things in tact,” he said.

The other side: Republican council member Tariq Bokhari, who represents District 6, organized a slate of Republicans to run for office, including four of the five on the list above.

• “This is what the community is going to get to look at: a group of longtime politicians that are really driven in large part in the narratives by their individual desires, their individual aspirations, versus a group of new people, other than us two incumbents, all running for the first time ever,” he said.
• “There will never be a more stark contrast in any election that I’ve seen than City Council and Mayor 2022.”

Flashback: In 2017, a wave of millennials swept City Council elections. They promised to change the way things work in a city that had started reckoning with the ways it had failed its residents of color following the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott.

• But in the years since then, those council members have squabbled and lobbed ethics complaints. We’re still struggling with the same affordable housing shortage and racial inequities that were at the forefront then.

Go deeper: The most millennial city council in America can’t get along

Between the lines: The process last year to replace Mitchell drew some of the same criticism.

• Council member Greg Phipps, who served on council in 2005 and from 2013-2019, was chosen to fill the seat after 107 eligible applicants vied for the position.
• Some protested his appointment after he failed to speak at a public candidate forum, and said the process was undemocratic.

State of play: The number of experienced candidates on the Democratic side, and lack thereof among Republicans, is a sign of how strong Democrats are in Charlotte, says Eric Heberlig, professor of political science and public administration at UNC Charlotte. 

• Around 21% of Mecklenburg County voters are registered as Republican, 36% are unaffiliated and 43% are Democrat, per the latest North Carolina State Board of Elections data.
• Still, Heberlig says this year is likely Republicans’ best opportunity to win some seats. It’s a midterm year, which are typically better for the party not in the President’s office.

What’s next: The primary election for city, county, state and federal races is May 17.

• The general election for city council will be held in July, and the date depends on whether a second federal primary occurs anywhere in North Carolina, Mecklenburg County elections director Michael Dickerson previously told me.
• Most likely, he said it’ll be July 26.

The bottom line: Midterm elections already draw lower turnout. But the fact that City Council’s general election will be in July, separate from the November general election, will likely mean only the most engaged voters show up.

• “People are more worried about summer vacations than City Council races,” Heberlig says.