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Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles on Tuesday easily won the Democratic primary, getting 71% of the vote against four opponents. That’s a rout.
But the results also showed some softening of support compared to her three previous primaries, when she got 85%, 84% and 87%.
Did the recent high-profile Lynx Blue Line murder and subsequent criticism of Lyles’ response, impact her support? Possibly.
She won the mail ballots and early in-person voting with 74%. On Election Day, that fell to 69%.
Election Day came after two weeks of media coverage about the killing, and after the story exploded into wall-to-wall national TV coverage the prior weekend.
What’s even more interesting is that Lyles, who is Black, ran weakest in some of the most heavily Black precincts.
Precinct 17 is in mostly Black Grier Heights. Lyles only got 55% of the vote. That was her fourth weakest precinct in the city.
If you move over a quarter of a mile or so, you are in Precinct 18 in almost all-white Eastover. It’s one of the wealthiest parts of the city. Lyles got 88% of the vote there — her strongest showing in Charlotte.
Her second-best precinct? Precinct 32 in Myers Park, which she won with 86%.
In a regular election year, this would be nothing more than a piece of trivia. But it does raise questions about the referendum in November to increase the sales tax by one percentage point for a transit and transportation plan.
Success or failure of the tax could be determined in the Black community, where it looks like there is already some mild disenchantment with the mayor. If that spreads, the tax could be in jeopardy.
And that’s where the pushback over the tax has mostly been coming from. It’s not anti-tax conservatives who you might reflexively think would be against the plan (in fact, Republicans like City Council member Ed Driggs have been some of the strongest local supporters). Black activists like Bobby Drakeford and Robert Dawkins have questioned the plan. The Rev. William Barber spoke out against it.
The city has scrambled to assuage their concerns. The referendum is in less than two months.
Stay tuned.
A new focus on judges and magistrates
On Monday, Lyles released her third statement about the killing of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old woman stabbed to death on a Blue Line train last month. Lyles detailed new safety measures the Charlotte Area Transit System plans to implement. She also said,Charlotte’s City Manager is MIA — again
I have not seen a single interview with Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones about the Lynx Blue Line murder.
Jones is the highest-paid city employee, with a base salary of $480,000. He is responsible for both the Charlotte Area Transit System and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, two key players in the light rail killing.
Part of his job is arguably to be a voice of the city, at least when it comes to the nuts and bolts of what city departments and staff are doing.
But that’s not how Jones works.
When the going gets tough, Jones gets quiet. Or perhaps stays quiet.
“This was a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates. Our police officers arrest people only to have them quickly released, which undermines our ability to protect our community and ensure safety.”
In response, the local Fraternal Order of Police said it has been raising questions about “catch-and-release” for years, but the mayor hasn’t responded.
In fact, the city’s previous police chief, Kerr Putney, complained about catch-and-release numerous times publicly. It was one of his biggest complaints. Current Chief Johnny Jennings has been vocal about the same issue.
But Lyles never acted.
The judicial system is not under her control, of course. But Lyles and the City Council never called for a roundtable of local leaders to discuss the issue. They didn’t hold a briefing to ask what could be done. They didn’t use the bully pulpit.
Charlotte’s City Manager is MIA — again
I have not seen a single interview with Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones about the Lynx Blue Line murder.
Jones is the highest-paid city employee, with a base salary of $480,000. He is responsible for both the Charlotte Area Transit System and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, two key players in the light rail killing.
Part of his job is arguably to be a voice of the city, at least when it comes to the nuts and bolts of what city departments and staff are doing.
But that’s not how Jones works.
When the going gets tough, Jones gets quiet. Or perhaps stays quiet.
The city made interim CATS CEO Brent Cagle available for an interview after a meeting of the Metropolitan Transit Commission. Cagle answered questions about the transit system’s security plans, as well as its security lapses.
Cagle has been in the interim job for less than two years. Many of the problems with CATS, such as a lack of security personnel on trains and few people doing fare enforcement, date back long before that.
Jones has been leading the city since 2017. Shouldn’t he address how those problems came to be?
The city released a statement to WSOC’s Joe Bruno that “in situations like these, it is important that organizations speak with a consistent voice. The mayor has been speaking on behalf of the organization, and CATS, which are the subject matter experts on transit, have been addressing questions specifically related to transit operations, including safety and security.”
It’s important for the mayor to address the public, of course. They vote for the mayor, not the manager, after all. But the details of CATS and CMPD are not under her direct control. That’s the manager’s job.
After Iryna Zarutska’s murder, Mayor Vi Lyles released a widely-criticized statement that didn’t mention the Ukrainian woman by name.
The mayor then pivoted to focus on the social safety net, at times in a lecturing tone. She said that “mental health disease is just that – a disease like any other than needs to be treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer or heart disease” and that “We, as a community, must do better for those members of our community who need help and have no place to go.”
The mayor released a second statement on X days later, saying she wanted to “thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage [of Zarutska’s killing] out of respect for Iryna’s family.”
That also drew a poor response. The New York Post ran an editorial criticizing Lyles and accusing her of attempting to bury the story.
Eight years into Lyles’ tenure as mayor, it’s clear she has strengths. She is patient and methodical. She knows the city government machinery. She quietly keeps a majority of council members on board to advance her agenda.
But she’s often not a good public communicator. An example is apparent in this recent interview with WSOC’s Joe Bruno about the need to pass the sales tax increase for transportation:
Well, it’s the right plan because it’s the, I think, the second or third right plan that we’ve tried to do, and it has finally captured the attention of the public and the residents that we have, and they are willing to participate with us. Now, yesterday, we had a big kick-off. And you know, you don’t think about some of these small things, the blind…the blind people that are here, and they came in and said, we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Well, I understand that, and it’s something that we can rely upon. And I believe that this community understands that people are the most important thing. We’ve heard it all over. Every person is talking about it’s important for people, well, it’s very important for people to have a way to get a job, a way to get to work and to have an opportunity.
That is hard to follow. It’s not an isolated example. Still, most of the time, that’s not a big deal.
After all, Lyles just won the Democratic primary easily. The people do not seem overly concerned. And, again, in Charlotte’s council-manager government, the mayor is largely a figurehead position, with the city manager running the show.
But in times of controversy, like the $305,000 settlement the city approved for CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings, the public is left wondering who is in charge. And after Zarutska’s death, the mayor’s statements led to outrage and mockery.
Why don’t the City Council and mayor demand that Jones be available to the public?
Two incumbents lost, but the center holds
Back to the primary: Going into Tuesday’s election, Lyles’ voting bloc on council held a small majority. That was most evident in this summer’s vote on whether to study ways to improve the working conditions and pay of contract workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
The council deadlocked 5-5 on whether to advance the issue. Lyles broke the tie and voted no.
The Service Employees Union International went all-in to defeat one member of the mayor’s group, District 5 representative Marjorie Molina, who appears to be on track to lose. She’s behind J.D. Mazuera Arias by 37 votes.
Molina has asked for a recount, and there are still a few provisional ballots left to count. But the math doesn’t appear to be in her favor.
Beating Molina was a huge win for the SEIU, but the union suffered a setback when District 3 incumbent Tiawana Brown lost to newcomer Joi Mayo. The SEIU backed Brown, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Brown’s federal indictment for COVID-19 loan fraud.
Brown was definitely not on Team Lyles, and Mayo is expected to vote with the mayor more often.
When asked about how she would have voted on the SEIU push to bring to committee the working conditions and pay of contract workers, Mayo said she needed to study the issue further.
Molina’s Silver Line silence left an opening
The SEIU moved against Molina not only because she voted against the union, but because she was vulnerable.
Take the summer of 2024. It appeared almost certain that Charlotte was going to kill the Silver Line East light rail project, which ran right through District 5.
Charlotte cut the line because of a lack of money as cost estimates increased. The revised plan was stopped at Bojangles’ Coliseum when it became apparent there was less money for rail transit. But there were other options, such as killing other projects (like the Blue Line Extension to Pineville) to divert money and bring the train farther east.
The Silver Line East would have been the biggest public works project in the city’s history, a huge boost to the eastside—and then it was gone.
Molina did not raise hell, and said she still supported the transit sales tax referendum. Mazuera Arias capitalized on the opening and criticized her for not fighting to keep the Silver Line light rail through east Charlotte. He also said he didn’t support the transit tax, creating a clear policy contrast in a low-turnout municipal race where voters sometimes struggle to differentiate candidates.
Now she’s 37 votes behind and likely to lose, though she’s still fighting.
She posted on X Thursday that her “intense battle for re-election (was) filled with evil, lies, racism, defamation, and hundreds of thousands of dollars from outside of NC being spent to humiliate and defeat me.”
Why doesn’t Edwin Peacock switch parties?
Earlier this year, the Charlotte City Council appointed former council member Edwin Peacock to fill the remainder of Tariq Bokhari’s District 6 seat. By most accounts, Peacock, a Republican, has done a solid job. Even Democrats say he’s been an asset to the council.
He’s now running for one of four at-large seats in November.
As a Republican, he’s probably doomed.
Republicans are only 19%* of registered voters in the city. A Republican hasn’t won a citywide seat since 2009. That person was … Peacock.
Charlotte is unusual in holding partisan municipal elections. Most cities don’t put the political party next to the candidate’s name on the ballot.
If Peacock wants to serve the city so badly, why doesn’t he just become a Democrat? After all, he’s not a MAGA guy.
Inside Politics asked him about that.
“No way,” he said, laughing. “I’m not a Democrat.”
He said the killing on the Lynx Blue Line emphasized that, and he accused his Democratic colleagues of being lax on crime.
Disclaimer: WFAE staff member Julian Berger is Mazuera Arias’ partner. He is not involved in any coverage of the District 5 race or coverage of the Charlotte City Council.
