At this point, it looks like the only thing that can stop Jennifer Roberts from making the sitting mayor of Charlotte a lame duck is apathy.
Roberts dominated Ballantyne, the South Boulevard corridor, Plaza Midwood and nearly all of east Charlotte in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for the mayorship. She more than held her own in west Charlotte, despite it being the home of David Howard and the focus of his campaign.
And she posted a commanding 10-point lead over Dan Clodfelter, who squeaked into a runoff against Roberts by about 650 votes over Howard. To his credit, Clodfelter won big in the coveted Dilworth and Myers Park areas. But the city’s most famous mustache is in serious trouble.
| Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Jennifer Roberts | 11,070 | 35.77% |
| Dan Clodfelter | 7,978 | 25.78% |
| David L. Howard | 7,335 | 23.70% |
| Michael D. Barnes | 4,326 | 13.98% |
Turnout in the primary topped 8 percent, a sad figure that is actually better than usual in this type of election. But it still fell below county elections director Michael Dickerson’s goal of 10 percent.
That’s going to fall off dramatically in an October runoff. The last time Charlotte had a municipal primary runoff, an abysmal 1.68 percent of voters made it to the polls. Roberts’ biggest challenge to locking up the Democratic nomination is reminding people that it’s Election Day again.
Good thing she still has $55,000 cash on hand, a touch more than Clodfelter’s $43,000. Roberts has been dominating the money game so far.
On the Republican side
This one was honestly never much of a race.
Edwin Peacock destroyed Scott Stone in the Republican mayoral primary by a 2-1 margin.
| Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Edwin B. Peacock III | 8,326 | 66.17% |
| Scott Stone | 4,256 | 33.83% |
Peacock has the fattest campaign wallet left with $157,000 in cash. He didn’t have to work as hard in a smaller field, and now can focus on the general election while Roberts has to concern herself with the runoff.
He’ll have a steep battle no matter who he faces. More than 30,000 votes were cast in the Democratic primary. About 12,500 were cast in the Republican one.
Mostly familiar faces on City Council
If you voted Republican, you didn’t have any City Council choices to make. The Democratic field was much larger, but it looks like it’s mostly familiar faces that are making it back to the general election. Incumbents made up two of the four Dems to win. A former councilman, James “Smuggie” Mitchell, did, too. Newcomer Julie Eiselt (shown above) was the biggest success story. (Pro tip, you pronounce “Smuggie” like smudge-ie. The story is that when he was a kid, he always had a smudge on his face)
| Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Vi Lyles | 19,131 | 18.74% |
| James (Smuggie) Mitchell | 17,644 | 17.29% |
| Julie Eiselt | 12,976 | 12.71% |
| Claire Green Fallon | 11,995 | 11.75% |
| Billy D. Maddalon | 9,504 | 9.31% |
| Darrell Bonapart | 9,144 | 8.96% |
| Mo Idlibby | 6,743 | 6.61% |
| Bruce Clark | 3,859 | 3.78% |
| Aaron Sanders | 3,423 | 3.35% |
| Shawn Greeson | 3,185 | 3.12% |
| Sean Gautam | 2,362 | 2.31% |
| Laurence E. Bibbs | 2,098 | 2.06% |
(Photo credits: Campaign Facebook pages for Jennifer Roberts, Edwin Peacock and Julie Eiselt)
