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Here are some of the other stories catching our attention.

Candidate ME 1- So You Want To Be A Candidate?

Erin Wygant
/
WFAE

Get ready folks, the 2017 election season is now officially underway. Which means dozens and dozens (and dozens) of candidates and their campaigns are hard at work trying to sway you to their side.

What if one of these campaigns opens their doors and showed us what happens behind the scenes? The messy stuff usually hidden from view. The art, science and yes, shenanigans of campaigning? Now that would be fun. But that's not going to happen.

So in our first episode, Candidate ME launches its own hypothetical campaign. 

Or at least goes through the steps to make that happen. And we answer this question: Unaffiliated voters are the fastest growing group of registered voters in the state, so why is it so rare to find an unaffiliated candidate on the ballot?

Plus, we introduce you to our completely biased panel of political strategists. This week guests are Democrat Dan McCorkle and Republican Larry Shaheen. Topics include how much money does a candidate for mayor really need? What are the real candidates doing right now behind the scenes and how big a role should Charlotte's homicide rate play in the election? And their take on unaffiliated voters and more.

Candidate ME is a fictional candidate going through the steps of running for mayor of Charlotte. Send us your question about campaigns and elections in the box below and we may use it for an episode of this podcast.

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Tom Bullock decided to trade the khaki clad masses and traffic of Washington DC for Charlotte in 2014. Before joining WFAE, Tom spent 15 years working for NPR. Over that time he served as everything from an intern to senior producer of NPR’s Election Unit. Tom also spent five years as the senior producer of NPR’s Foreign Desk where he produced and reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon among others. Tom is looking forward to finally convincing his young daughter, Charlotte, that her new hometown was not, in fact, named after her.