This article originally appeared in WFAE reporter Steve Harrison's weekly newsletter Inside Politics. Sign up here and get the news straight to your inbox first.
Earlier this year, Jim Morrill wrote a story in Charlotte Magazine titled “Who’s in Charge in Charlotte?”
The thesis is that a generation ago a small group of business leaders worked with politicians to shape the city. That model is gone. It’s been replaced with … well, that’s hard to say.
Charlotte’s current CEOs are less involved than the old gang of banking executives such as Hugh McColl and Ed Crutchfield.
But how much less involved?
I decided to check voting records, starting with the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council. That’s a group of mostly business leaders who are “committed to accelerating solutions that position Charlotte as a national leader in economic vitality, equitably opportunity and quality of life for all.”
The CELC has two chairs: Trane Technologies retired CEO Mike Lamach and Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods.
Woods successfully lobbied for Atrium to receive $75 million in city and county funds for infrastructure for its new Innovation District in Dilworth, an offshoot of its planned medical school.
He has been registered to vote in Mecklenburg since 2016. But he has never voted in a city of Charlotte general election or school board race, though he did vote in the September 2019 election headlined by the Dan McCready-Mark Harris race for Congress. There was a Charlotte primary on the same ballot.
Lamach is less known. He’s been registered in Mecklenburg County since 2019 and missed last year’s mayoral and City Council primary and general election.
The CELC has 38 members total, 35 of whom are business leaders.
I put their names in the state Board of Elections voter lookup. Most are clearly identifiable, and their voting history is easy to check.
A couple of members don’t live here, like Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and Carl Armato of Novant Health. Some don’t live in the city of Charlotte, though they live in places like Waxhaw and Davidson, which also have municipal elections. A few others have common names that make them difficult to track down.
Of those 35 business leaders, eight clearly voted in last year’s mayoral and City Council race. They include leaders such as Fred Whitfield of the Charlotte Hornets, John Giannuzzi of Deloitte and Lucia Zapata Griffith of Metro Landmarks, an architectural firm.
And there are CEOs who skipped local elections.
CELC member Lynn Good, who is the chief executive at Duke Energy, didn’t vote in either the 2022 City Council primary or the general election. (She did vote in the 2019 City Council election.)
Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk, who registered to vote in Mecklenburg in 2019, missed the last two city of Charlotte elections.
Sealed Air CEO Ted Doheny? He missed both last year’s primary and general elections for City Council and mayor.
Ned Curran, the former CEO of the Bissell Companies, is a link between the McColl-Crutchfield days and today’s less politically engaged CEO. Curran hasn’t missed a city of Charlotte general election since at least 1987. That’s the farthest back state elections board records go online.
He said he’s “disappointed” that many business colleagues don’t vote in city elections.
“That said, I still see many business leaders engaged in civic issues,” Curran said. “Perhaps it’s not as broad as it used to be, but some deeply engage on issues that are very important to them.”
The business leaders above are on the CELC.
There are others who have also taken a pass on City Council and mayor.
Doug Lebda, of Lending Tree, missed the last three city elections. Susan Devore, the former CEO of Premier, a Charlotte-based healthcare company, also doesn’t vote in city elections.
In fairness, the importance of Charlotte’s elections has dwindled.
There hasn’t been a competitive race for mayor since 2017. Republicans stand almost no chance of winning an at-large seat. And last year’s general election was in July instead of the traditional November date.
But McColl, the former Bank of America CEO, is still going strong. He voted in last summer’s city election. And he has voted in every City Council election since at least 1987 — the farthest the voting rolls are available online.
Mecklenburg’s legislative delegation now has a wildcard: Tricia Cotham
Republicans in the state House are one vote short of a super-majority.
House Speaker Tim Moore has said he has a “working supermajority,” meaning he thinks he can get at least one Democrat to come over and join him.
In deep blue Mecklenburg County, there aren’t many takers among the county’s 12 Democratic House members. But there is one intriguing wildcard: Tricia Cotham.
Cotham got her start in Raleigh when she was appointed in 2007 to fill the seat vacated by Jim Black, the disgraced former House speaker who resigned during a criminal investigation into cash payoffs he took. She didn’t run for reelection in 2016 but was elected last November.
To start this session, Moore gave her a co-chair of the K-12 education committee — an unusually plum job for a Democrat. Cotham — a former assistant principal at East Mecklenburg High — was the only Democrat in committee to vote in favor of a GOP-sponsored bill that would make the Board of Education elected rather than appointed.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said this week that the bill is a “blatant attempt to have radical right-wing politicians run our public schools rather than educators and experts. It would result in extremists calling the shots for our students and educators.”
That vote may be the appetizer for SB49, the bill Republicans are calling the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”
That bill bans curriculum on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality in grades K-4. It also requires teachers to inform parents if students change their pronouns.
It was sent to the House last week.
When asked whether she will support the bill, Cotham said by text: “I’m briefing now on it. It’s changed some.”
The House passed another controversial bill last week, a measure that would increase criminal penalties during rioting and civil unrest.
Cotham voted with her Democratic colleagues in voting against it. But Democratic House member Laura Budd — who represents a swing seat in southeast Mecklenburg — voted along with five other Democrats statewide to support it.
ACLU backs staff member after explicit Twitter rant
Kristie Puckett-Williams is a Charlotte criminal justice advocate who is widely quoted in the media, including WFAE. She is also a staff member at the ACLU of North Carolina.
In a Twitter confrontation this week with WBT radio talk show host Pete Kaliner, Puckett-Williams blasted him repeatedly in highly explicit terms, telling him (among other things) to fellate her. Some of her tweets have since been limited so only certain people can view them.
The national ACLU has been divided over how partisan the organization should be and whether it should continue its total commitment to free speech no matter how vile.
Puckett-Williams’ bosses in North Carolina did not criticize her speech.
“Statements made by employees of the ACLU of North Carolina do not reflect the opinions or policies of our organization,” the group said last week. “We respect the right of everyone, including employees of ACLU of NC, to exercise the constitutional right to free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment, which includes the right to express their views as individuals on their own personal social media platforms.”
CORRECTION
In a newsletter last month, I wrote that former state Supreme Court justice Robert Orr had donated to Democrat Jeff Jackson’s campaign for U.S. Senate. While Orr — a former Republican — has donated to Democrats in other races, his son (also named Robert Orr) made the $500 donation to Jackson.