Outgoing Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory claims he isn’t lame-ducking his final term as the city’s leader.
“I don’t believe in the term ‘lame duck,'” McCrory said. “I’m going to go strong until my replacement comes in. I’m the opposite of Sarah Palin when it comes to finishing my term. I didn’t cruise my first term, and I won’t cruise now. I’m hoping to make the transition [for the next mayor] as smooth as possible. It is important to leave the government and the city in the best shape possible.”
To do this, McCrory has seemingly kept his eye on what’s going on around the city.
In February, The Charlotte Business Journal reported that McCrory expressed concern over the way stimulus money was slated to be used in the Queen City. And even while he was on the campaign trail for governor last fall, he kept a close eye on changes at Wachovia, telling Creative Loafing at the time that he hopped off the campaign trail to fight for the bank to keep jobs in the Queen City.
These days, McCrory said he’s working to bring energy jobs to Charlotte, has pressed state representatives about tax dollars that Charlotte isn’t getting and regularly voices his opinion on a variety of current governmental issues; but could his very visible hard work be just a move to make him a better statewide candidate?
When asked if he plans to run for state office, McCrory said he’s not ready to answer that question, saying, “Right now, my total focus is on finishing the job. I’m totally focused on these last four months.”
But a number of the mayor’s recent actions appear to operate contrary to his Charlotte-centric assertions. He’s gone to Raleigh to join in on the health-care debate with the conservative Americans For Prosperity group. McCrory also sat down with Raleigh’s ABC TV affiliate and outlined how he would fix the state’s budget woes, including changing the way government runs. He was a part of a tense meeting with N.C. Sen. Dan Clodfelter on July 14 where he pressed the representative about the state’s tax plans for the city, and based on a report in The Charlotte Observer, McCrory didn’t hold back when talking to Clodfelter. When McCrory asked for more information on the state’s tax plans, Clodfelter said he couldn’t reveal them. “Now wait a minute,” McCrory shot back, the paper details. “You just tell us something in an argument and then you tell us we can’t get the details.”
If McCrory does plan to run again in three years, UNC-Charlotte political science professor Ted Arrington believes he’s going to be a better and stronger candidate.
“He’s now well known statewide, which cost him a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort. He’s going to start from a higher position. Secondly, there was a learning curve with him learning how to switch from running for mayor and running for governor,” Arrington said.
As for being mayor of Charlotte with other political ambitions, Arrington said McCrory’s future success will determine if the next mayor will hold on to the job for as long as McCrory did.
“Unless Pat does make it to the governor’s office the next time — and he only has one more shot at it — then we really are going to conclude that the mayor of Charlotte is not a stepping stone to anything except a congressional seat once Sue Myrick leaves,” he said. “Other than that, it’s not a stepping stone to anything; so why do you want to spend $300,000 for a job where you have very limited veto and no vote on the city council, which spends most of its time talking about how you collect the garbage? It’s hard to believe that anybody is going to want to do it and hard to believe that anyone is going to want to do it seven times.”
McCrory said leaving the mayor’s office now is the right thing for him and the city of Charlotte.
“I’ve committed most of my adult life to being the mayor of Charlotte. It’s going to be an emotional transition. I’m going to miss being called Mayor Pat,” he said, adding that it’s time for a change for him and the Queen City.
But if he attempts another statewide run for office, McCrory’s achievements in Charlotte may come back to haunt him.
“There are only two things that he’s done that you look at and say, ‘That’s a monument to Pat McCrory,'” Arrington said. “One is the [light rail] and the other is the Uptown arena, which he was in favor of — but he allowed Lynn Wheeler [former city council member and mayor pro tem] to be the front person so she would take all the heat. He’s done lots of other things, but it’s hard to find anything [bigger than the arena and the LYNX].”
Though transit is something that McCrory champions — and he believes the transit and land use plan in place will be extended for the next 50 years and be a great asset to the city if the expansion continues — Arrington said it’s not going to help the mayor in any future bid for state office.
“The people who vote in Republican primaries are very, very conservative. They don’t like trains. They like cars and wide roads where they can ride their SUVs that get six miles per gallon on 12-lane highways. That’s what they like. They don’t like trains; that suggests the liberal Northeast to them. So, [trains] are good for the city, but that won’t help him at all.”
This article appears in Best of Charlotte 2009.
