Local NAACP demands interim Charlotte Mayor be black | Hour 1

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. It is Tuesday, It's twelve noon, Hi noon, as it were, and that means it's time to chat with Oh no, sorry, that's the wrong line. I hit line one. I meant to hit line seven. That's Andrew Dunn. Hello, Andrew, welcome to the program. Hey, hey, thanks for having me back. Yes, sir, sorry I hit the wrong line to pick up for some reason. Andrew Dunn is the creator of Longleapolitics, longlepol dot com and also a contributing columnist over at the Charlotte Observer and News and Observer. All right, so you wrote a piece at Long Leave Politics called what Roy Cooper's early release And you put that in the quotes what the early release list actually reveals? So let's jump ahead to the payoff, which is what does it actually reveal? Yeah, and we've talked about this early. Release list before, and how this story got started was, you know, I keep seeing chatter on social media and you know from elected officials. You know, why isn't this a bigger deal? So this was twenty twenty one. Governor Roy Cooper's administration. Cut a friendly settlement with the NAACP, the ACLU and folks like that who were suing over saying that there were too many people in prison during COVID and so they had to reduce the prison population, and the Cooper administration pledged to let thirty five hundred people thirty five hundred inmates out early. And the who actually got out was secret for a long, long long time until just this year when it got leaked and independent journalist Stephen Horne did a great public service by taking that opaque list and turning it into a searchable database. So I wanted to. Go in there and look out, look into so who actually got out and what actually happened. And the deeper I dived into the list, the more I realized how messy everything was, and that all of these people that Governor Roy Cooper said that he released early. Very few of them actually got out early. As most people would understand the phrase, what happened most of the time is that people got parole cut short and or the people that they had already let out were counted as an early release. But then when I took another step even deeper than that, what I saw in these in these case files is the same people getting arrested again and again and again for the same types of crimes, serving you know, very very short sentences for severe offenses. I mean people who were originally charged with first degree murder and getting you know, pleading guilty to manslaughter and getting out in four years and then going out and killing somebody again. And you know, it's easy for Democrats to look at this and say, well, you know, this is vindication for Roy Cooper. See, he didn't let anybody out early. But the reality is is that he was letting people out early. But he was letting everybody out early, not just these thirty five hundred, and he did it over a period of decades. Right, So for some context, Number one, I think it's important for people to remember the time frame that this was occurring during the pandemic but also against this backdrop of Black Lives Matter, right, the protest movements. There was this whole defund the police campaign, the decarceration movement, which has been around for quite a while, but it really started to gain traction inside the Democrat Party. Then you've got the lawsuit that gets filed by the NAACP and the ACLU, and the people that are in the parole and probation system, they are fully aware that this lawsuit has been filed, right, They're fully aware that this stuff is coming down the pike, and it is hard for me to believe that their decisions to let people out are completely unblemished by either the filing of the lawsuit or the COVID pandemic. Right. There are a lot of people that are on those boards and commissions appointed by the governor, if I recall correctly, right, So, I would imagine they are sort of simpatico to his views and they understand the political dynamics. And so if you know your boss is getting ready to enter into this agreement, which they had agreed to do, and it took a couple months to hammer it out, but you have to believe. I believe, and I find it illogical not to believe that the people making these decisions on you know, cutting paroles short or letting people off of probation and stuff, and even giving them parole and probation. I can't believe that they were making those decisions in a vacuum. No, of course, not no, And I completely agree with that perspective, and I've made that argument in the past. You know, the problem is is that Governor Cooper seems to have been pretty shrewd in how he structured this to avoid any sort of accountability for his actions and his administration's action. Well, you got a celebratory retweet yesterday from the leftist group called Carolina Fullward on Twitter and they quoted or they retweeted your piece and they said the collapse of the Cooper early release nonsense was inevitable for a simple reason. It's fake, as improvably false. Inventing fake stories about your opponent is not exactly new in politics, of course, but it's good to just be clear that's what the Wattley team has done. So what is I mean, what's your response to that? Do you think that that's what you wrote? No? I don't, And I always like to point out whenever we talk about lines against Roy Cooper is that Roy Cooper had to apologize for lying in his first campaign for attorney general. He ended up getting sued after he smeared his opponent, and it took what fifteen sixteen years before he eventually had to pay out a little bit of money and publicly apologized. And I also like to point out that Governor Josh Stein is on record in legal proceedings arguing that it's perfectly okay to lie in politics, that it's his first Amendment right. So I always like to point that out first. But on this particular. Case, I would not see this as vindication for Governor Cooper at all. I mean, he presided sixteen years as Attorney general, eight years as governor over the criminal justice system, and even today he likes to talk about how he dedicated his life to keeping bad guys locked up and putting bad guys away. And I think what this early release list clearly shows is that the system he presided over for so long is fundamentally broken. Yeah, we talked about this, the catch and release, turnstile, judicial and court system that we have not just here in Mecklinberg County, but also at the state level as well, and I mean I think it was. I think we were talking a couple months ago about the fact that the General Assembly only recently, like within the last ten or fifteen years, changed the law, so like if you got a life sentence that actually means life. Now, there were so many of these. People that were convicted on a life sentence and then they're out in twenty five years, thirty years or something like that. And that practice continued for decades here in the state. It did until the mid nineties. They finally changed that. Yeah, all right, so let's shift gears over to the mayorship in Charlotte. First off, were you surprised at all that viy Lyles announced her resignation as mayor? I wasn't surprised, per se. I think the timing was a little surprising. A few people that I know were expecting that to come imminently, But just watching her over the past year or two, I mean it was clear. I don't think her health. Is in the best shape, and you know, I wish her all the best, but yeah, I was a little a little surprising the timing of it all. Yeah, I mean I noticed she was not attending rezoning meetings in quite a while, and she would get you know, uh distracted or confused or you know, fumbling over words, not remembering words and that sort of thing. So I'm I kind of suspect there may be something going on. I mean, and she's you know, in her seventies and so, and she wants to spend more time with the family. And I totally understand all of that. But now this opens up the uh, the the political can of worms, where you've got this mayorship that's going to be open at the end of June. City council gets to make the appointment. It has to be a Democrat, and they don't want somebody in there that's going to have the power of incumbency. So when like what half a dozen of the city council members run for the seat, they don't want to have to fight. They want to fight an incumbent. So they got to find somebody who can do the job but doesn't want to do the job past next year. So you helpfully create a list. And Andrew, I have some questions, right, So first off, there's Julie Eil. She's your Is she your top choice? I guess, So we'll consider these in rough order. Okay, so she is former city council member, former mayor pro ten so she she would know the job, she's done the job. That seems that seems like a good pick for that reason. She's also not on council. She stepped aside what I think a year or two, two years ago, whatever it was. So and she's also you call her pragmatic and pro business and serious about public safety. So like, this seems to be like your top choice. But do you like does she does she suffer any for not being able to have a coalition when she walks in the door, if she is like less lefty. Well, I'm under no illusions that the current city council is looking at my list and it's gonna cost of it. So yeah, some of it is wishful thinking. But also there's also a little bit of an element of holding your nose because by law, it has to be a registered Democrat. And you know, when I was going through. To put together this list, there were a lot of folks, especially in the business community, that I kind of assumed we're Democrats and might be able to make my list. But so many folks are unaffiliated these days that it's hard to find actual Democrats that. Are are reasonable people. But yeah, I mean to your point, yes, I mean Julie I so she's not going. To have the support of the city council. But what I was drawn to is, you may remember, you know, she started her career in public service because she had I believe she was held up, robbed at gunpoint in the Ynca parking lot and that kind of spurred her to get involved in politics and really took a serious public safety mindset. And I think Charlotte desk needs somebody who's going to take public public safety seriously. At this point, you mentioned Pat Cothham, and also, don't sell yourself short here, Andrew. This is in the Charlotte Observer, so it's possible that city leaders could see this this list. So you got Pat Cotham, also former county commissioner who was unfairly penalized because her daughter switched parties in the legislature, Larkin Eggleston and he's doing the podcast with Tark Bakari Republican and so you know, I mean, that's a decent pick. He knows his way around city Hall. Then you had Frank Emery and he was what I guess a lawyer or something like. I had not heard of Frank Emery. Yeah, he's kind of been a behind the scenes guy. At least in the public arena for a while. I mean, he's been very well known in legal circles in Charlotte. But then he's also served two terms on the North Carolina Board of Transportation. I believe he's also on this new transit authority. He's very well regarded among people you know who know him, and I think he would bring just. Kind of a steady hand, a no drama approach. Well, then you want your final pick, and this was the one that made me cringe a little bit. Erskine Bowles really Andrew Erskine Bowles, you want to bring him back into the arena. I would just love to see that, to be honest. You know, there was a time, you know, fifteen twenty years ago, whenever there was a vacancy for anything, Erskine Bowles was the number one the number one pick. And you know, I just I need to we need to remind people about Erskine Bowls. I feel like, ah, not so sure. One last, one, last question on this is that the NAACP Charlotte Mecklenberg branch. They put out a tweet saying it is seriously disturbing for white folks to be lobbying to be the interim mayor in Charlotte, our mayor who recently resigned as a black woman, who is a registered Democrat, while black representation is being undermined and stripped nationwide, White folks are either tone deaf or worse self centered. It's not about you. In Charlotte, black voters have been intentional about having black representation. What is the consensus after several discussion at the city council votes a non black person in as interim mayor? Again, voters will hold you accountable next year. What's your reaction to the NAACPS shot across the vow there to city council. Yeah, I mean, I just find that sort of politics completely toxic, and honestly, I don't know who the audience is for that. I feel like most people, no matter their skin color, have. Rejected that sort of rhetoric. You know. I think what this was in reaction to was Jennifer Roberts. Yeah, per open letter asking for the piece, which I mean, I agree with NAACP that I do not want to see Jennifer Roberts as the next interim mayor of Charlotte. But so then broaden it out and say no white person should be considered. I think is just ridiculous. Whites need not apply. Yes, all right, Andrew Down, I appreciate the time as always, sir. You can check out his work at longleavepol dot com and at the Charlotte Observer. We'll talk with you next week. Andrew, thank you. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. 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But at any rate, they are going to select the interim mayor to fill out the rest of vy Wiles's term, and there are, depending on the rumors and whatever, there's like, you know, about half a dozen Democrats that want to run. I think there may be a bumper crop of Republicans as well, I think they may be fielding one candidate this year. That's I'm kidding. I'm just kid. It's probably not even that many. But either way, the seat is obviously going to stay in Democrat control, and so the city Council does not want to put somebody in that seat that is going to run for mayor. Now. The last time they did this they after Pat Cannon got indicted for bribery and corruption and went to prison. They had to fulfill the remainder of his unexpired term, which was almost the full two years because he got he got indicted like pretty quickly after the election, and they put Dan Claude Felter into the seat. And Claude Felter had said he would not run for mayor, and then he did, but he got beaten by Jennifer Roberts, and Jennifer Roberts then got beaten by Vy Lyles. So that's how we ended up here. Jennifer Roberts has written a letter to the City Council saying she would very much, you know, take the leadership over, and she's also sorry that she went to the media first before telling counsel. A message from Russ who says I am no longer a Charlotte voter, but I would support Felon Patrick Cannon, Nick Mackie, or even that nutball who was all upset about the Ramseys exhibit before getting behind Jennifer Roberts. That's that's a throwback. There was a guy who ran for mayor. I believe he was a libertarian and. Could probably just end the sentence there. I'm kidding, I kid, I kid, but no. He believed that when the Ramses exhibit it was like an ancient Egyptian king or whatever they called him. You know, yeah, I guess king, yeah, king tut whatever, it's like King Ramses exhibit came through Charlotte. He said that that put a curse on the Queen's city and that if elected mayor, he would remove the curse. It was quite the campaign pitch. I had never heard anything like it before. Let see Scott says. Lyles knew she was going to resign when she ran for reelection last fall. This corrupt cabal could not risk just anyone winning the mayor's seat, so she ran one. And now the council gets to pick who will be mayor, not the voters of Charlotte. The council and the mayor already know who they will appoint. It's the same stink as trying to secretly pay the police chief three hundred thousand because his feelings were hurt. So she has said mayor, and Lyles said that she wanted to make sure that, you know, the refereen, the transportation referendum passed and now that that's done, got that through, it's like okay, great, now she can step aside because she wanted to. Make sure that that would would pass. As for like who gets put in the seat, I like there is there is disagreement on city council as to who they're going to name. I am sure right, there's going to be you know, people are going to be jockeying for the position because there's like five council members that are eyeing a run for mayor, so they they don't want to put somebody in there that's going to be and a you know, somebody that runs for mayor against them. So let me see here. When it comes to Jennifer Roberts becoming mayor again, Brett Jensen said it best yesterday quote, you might as well light Charlotte on fire. Yeah, I'm not so sure that people are going to want her back. They voted her out in their primary for a reason. Mark says, Jennifer Roberts will bring back bathrooms being able to be used by both. She is a bad choice for our government. Jennifer says, I've been made aware of a theory. Okay, so here's a theory. Lyles did not want to run again, but was asked to do so so she could tank the I seventy seven toll road project. I don't know if she alone could do that. But I mean, as long as we're just theorizing, Don says, my guess is Braxton Winston will come up with enough money to pay them off to appoint him and agree not to run again, and then break that promise and run again. Yeah. I don't know. I think he's in charge of the union shop now, so he's I don't know. I think he's finally got himself a stable source of income. The NAACP statement is a clear indication that they don't care about the best person for the job. They care about a black person for the job. Well, that is what they said. I mean. The NAACP statement is they say that they want it has to be a bl black person because there's a black mayor and black voters have been intentional about having black representation. And you know what, it got me thinking, what is the adequate representation for all of the racial demographics? If we're going to play this game, NAACP, then let's take a look at the numbers, shall we. Let's there are eleven people on city council, including the mayor. There are ten council members and one mayor. Right, no, I'm sorry, eleven council members. Yeah, yeah, because you've got four at large and seven districts. So you have eleven city council members and the mayor. Okay, and so that is a total then of twelve people at the dais. Of the twelve people, eight are black. Eight out of twelve. Now, if my math is correct, that's about seventy five percent of the city council is black. That's intentional, right, because they say black people, black voters have been intentionable, intentional about having black representation. Okay, So you got seventy. Five percent of the council members black, you got one Hispanic, you have one Asian, and you have two white people. Okay. So I then was curious, what is the racial makeup, what's the demographic makeup of Charlotte. And then after all, if you're going to play this kind of a game that the NAACP wants to play, where you know, oh, it's a black mayor and black voters have been adamant and we want black leadership and all of this. Well, first off, there are four other seats that are elected at large, meaning citywide. All four of those seats, sorry except one, are held by black people, dimple as the Asian she has one of the at large seats. But then Lawana Mayfield, James Mitchell, and Victoria Watlington they are all at large. So that's three out of the four. So once again, that is a seventy five percent city wide representation, right, seventy five percent of the seats represented by African Americans. Zero represented by white people. Okay, so eight total seats of the council thirty three rather eight, Yeah, seventy five percent one Asian, one White, one Hispanic. Two whites. If you look at the racial demographics, those are the numbers I was just looking at here. This is what the racial demographic breakdown is of the city of Charlotte. The black population makes up thirty three percent of Charlotte citizens, so thirty three percent gets seventy five percent of the representation on city council. Again, I don't like playing this game. I prefer not to. But if the NAACP is going to make this overtly racist kind of an argument, well then I am going to produce these kinds of data points to ask, well, what is a fair proportional representation model? Because whites make up forty percent of the city and they only have two seats on city council. So what's the deal with that? Right, maybe the mayor should be a white person in order to increase proportionally, you know, in proportion to the racial demographic breakdown of the city, maybe they should get more seats. I say this to someone outside city limits. I can't affect your votes one way or the other. I'm just pointing out, if you're going to play this kind of a game where the only thing that matters is the skin color of the person, well then it looks like you are way over reped presented on city council. There's by the way, sixteen percent of the city population is Hispanic and seven percent of the city population is Asian, so it seems like there's one racial group that has outsized benefit when it comes to the representation demographic breakdown. Again, that's what the NAACP wants me to focus on. They want me to focus on the race of these candidates first. Now, I would prefer to view it as white Democrats can't get elected inside their primaries, because that's what it certainly looks like, right, and that's been the trend for a very long time. And Republicans can't get elected at all citywide. Let me get to some of the messages here on the text line eight h three number says whatever happened to the concept of just finding the best person for the job? That's so nineteen nineties. U Sean says, Uh, why is it always black people but white folk white folks? I don't know, I use both interchangeably. Ralph says, bring back Patrick Cannon. Yeah, there you go. Why not? Uh, council has to tank its pick for their own futures, so perfect, says the hell in Yeah pretty much. Oh how about Gary not my fault McFadden for Mayo. Um to do this is? Uh? My nickname for Braxton Winston is Foghorn Leghorn from the Old Bugs Bunny series of cartoons. Really, that's uh, John says, give loons on trains, stabbing people, flustrated sheriffs. There may be something to that whole Ramsey's curse thing for Yeah, maybe maybe he wasn't that far off. Pete Da says, Pete, if you want to get really creative, look at the racial makeup of all the department heads of the City of Charlotte. Yeah, and look this, Yeah, this goes throughout. I mean I think I've done run these numbers on Mecklenburg County. It's the same deal on the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board. It's across the board, right, And so like this is why, like when you look at the demographics and you look at the election results, and I mean, then there's the other layer of like Republican versus Democrat. Because I made this argument to Councilman Malcolm Graham when he was leading the redistricting effort back in twenty twenty I think it was and you know, I pointed out that, like you've got seven districts and I forget what the percentage of Republican voters are, and you know they should have Republicans should have two of those seats. But he was like, well, no, we just you know, we can't make them apps work and whatever whatever. So like there's always an excuse, right, because again, when Democrats say fair and maps, they mean maps that advantage them. So yeah, and you got Republicans that have moved out of the city, and so there's that whole aspect to it. But what is obvious then is that you have forty percent of the population that are white and they are willing to vote for black candidates. Now, they may not have much of a choice come the general election, right, because if I'm a white Democrat and I voted for a white Democrat and a primary, but I lost because the black vote in the Democrat primary just overwhelms the white vote. Because the Democrats have done everything they can to run. White folks out of their party through their policies and their rhetoric. So you know, you got a lot of people that leave the Democrat party, and so a white candidate has a harder time clearing a field in the primary. So then they go to the general. Well, now me, as a white Democrat voter, I'm going to vote for the Democrat, right, which kind of lays bear this whole lie about, you know, the redistricting and the jerrymandering and the racial jerrymandering, and we have to do this, We have to draw districts that ensure a black person wins because otherwise a black person could not win. And then of course you point out, you know, Tim Scott, a black Republican, wins in South Carolina. He's been there for like fifteen years. So yeah, they're mad that what Memphis, Memphis is going to lose its majority black district. Oh my gosh. The district is right now represented by Steve Cohen, a white dude, a Democrat, and his opponent is a black female. Okay, so we'll see if the Democrat voters, the black Democrat voters in Memphis will vote Democrat and a white guy, or they will vote for a black Republican. We'll see. To let me see here, this is eight of twelve is two thirds, not seventy five. Oh okay, sixty seven percent. Sorry, see I was told there would be no man, thank you. Seven four number eight of twelve is two thirds. You are correct, two thirds nine would be seventy five percent. Right. We haven't heard a peep from Robert since she left office with blood on her hands from her riot that caused the death of an innocent man. Has everyone forgotten this needless death on her watch? Yeah? This was her handling of the fiery but mostly peaceful, riotous behavior after the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, a man who had supposedly a traumatic brain injury but also had a firearm getting high in his car at a bus stop and then got out of the car and refused to drop the weapon and then lifted it and then got shot, I would note by a black officer, Okay, a black officer, and then everybody. And that's what launched Braxton Winston's political career, because he was out there in the streets with his shirt. Off right, and everyone was like, oh my gosh, he's so muscular. Him in office, and then they did. Stan says, if only black people who understand their struggles can represent black people, how come most of the party leaders in the party they routinely vote for are extremely wealthy white people who know nothing about their struggles. It's a very sick question. Seven oh four number says, maybe the NAACP is using the three fifth principle but applying for whites, but they're not. Saying that because they're cowards. Yeah don't. I don't know like it? Again, Well, here I will read to you a message from Jabril who says, if anybody else put out that statement from Corinn max NAACP, they would be called racist. She's not concerned with who may be best or the humanity of such person. She's just concerned with racial politics. She's the first one to call out racism, yet she seeks to play it and that is correct. Vince Coakley for mayor. There you go. Fred says, how about Gary not my fault McFadden for a dual role mayor and sheriff. Yeah, I mean you just can't get enough of him, you know, like he could do both. I think he could do both. I think you're right, Fred. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.