During early voting in south Charlotte, the SouthPark regional library is the best place to reach voters.
Incumbent Democrat Laura Meier was there, passing out her pamphlets.
“Hi, I’m Laura Meier,” she said. “I’m running for re-election. I’m your county commissioner.”
A woman was pleased.
“Wonderful,” she said.
That was a cheerful exchange.
But both Meier and her challenger, Republican Matthew Ridenhour, say the race has been anything but pleasant, though they say it’s the other’s fault.
“It’s become negative,” Meier said. “He is throwing out some misleading ads against me, and I’m wanting to talk issues and he’s not talking about issues. But he is finding obscure issues and not putting out the full quote.”
Ridenhour said he’s dealing with attacks against him that — in his view — don’t have anything to do with being a commissioner.
This race could be the Republican’s best chance to win a seat on the nine-member commission. Democrats have held all seats since 2018.
Ridenhour, who previously held the seat from 2012 to 2018, has highlighted at least two comments Meier has made.
One was about her preference to not have school resource officers — who are sworn police — inside schools. She said would prefer to have people more trained in de-escalation and mental health.
Ridenhour said police are needed to maintain safety.
The other was when commissioners Susan Rodriguez-McDowell and then Meier were caught on a live microphone during a meeting talking about people who wanted the county to rescind the mask mandate.
Meier said, “they make me sick.”
Ridenhour has noted that in social media ads.
“I think that is a very telling comment from her on how she views people, including her own constituents who don’t agree with her,” he said.
Meier said it’s important to understand the full context of what happened.
“It was a conversation a colleague of mine had under our breath, it was not meant to be heard,” she said.
She said they were talking specifically about the crowd’s negative reaction to a woman who was imploring the county not to rescind the mandate.
“That behavior made me sick. It wasn’t that they were against masks. It was the way they were treating another parent,” Meier said.
Meier, on the other hand, has posted on social media criticizing Ridenhour for saying he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. The full context of that, however, is that Ridenhour was saying he would prefer the Florida governor to Donald Trump should they run for president in 2024.
And she has highlighted that Ridenhour is against abortion rights.
He said that’s a non-issue.
“It’s not surprising that someone who is a Republican is pro-life,” he said. “At the same time, I have reminded voters who were unaware of this, the county doesn’t have anything to do with abortion services. The county does not provide abortion services. It does not fund abortion providers. It is a complete non-issue.”
Meier said it still matters.
“They are trying to say, or he is trying to say, it’s not an issue,” she said. “I think it’s important to know what our candidates’ values are. Because this office is a stepping stone for higher office for many, and we need to know where people land on this issue in particular.”
The two candidates both talk about the need for more parks, open space and affordable housing.
There is one policy issue in which there is a clear difference: The county’s relationship with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Last summer, a majority of Mecklenburg Commissioners voted to withhold $56 million from the district until it presented a plan to close achievement gaps.
Meier was one of two commissioners to vote against that plan, along with Rodriguez-McDowell.
Meier said that vote was a “stunt.”
“One, it was illegal, and we should have never been able to do that,” she said. “And therefore, we ended up being forced to release that $56 million. Plus, we were forced to give even more money than what was originally recommended by the manager.”
Ridenhour said he would have voted with the other commissioners to withhold the money.
“I would have voted with the majority to withhold that,” he said. “Now with hindsight, the lawyers said you can’t do that. But I think the important thing about that decision is that it got a good conversation going. What kind of outcomes can we expect for our investment?”
Ridenhour lost by 1.4 percentage points — or 1,100 votes — to Susan Harden in the "blue wave" in 2018. Harden didn’t run in 2020, clearing the way for Meier.
She beat Ridenhour by a larger margin two years ago.
In other commission races, three Democrats are favored to win the three at-large seats: incumbents Pat Cotham and Leigh Altman and former CMS board member Arthur Griffin.
There are two other district races that could be competitive.
In District 6, Rodriguez-McDowell is facing Republican Jeremy Brasch, who has run for commission before. That seat stretches from Pineville to Mint Hill.
And in District 1, Democrat Elaine Powell is running against first-time GOP candidate Ross Monks.
