Mecklenburg's bi-partisan delegation?

It's a Democratic-dominated delegation in a Republican-led General Assembly. If you wouldn't expect everything to go perfectly smoothly, you wouldn't be disappointed.

Mecklenburg County's 17-member strong delegation meets Wednesday morning to begin parceling out local bills and looking at local agendas. It will be under the chairmanship of Sen. Malcolm Graham, a Charlotte Democrat.

But some Republicans had hoped to share the leadership, even though Mecklenburg Democrats outnumber them 9-8.

"Ideally you want your delegation to act in a non-partisan manner for the benefit of Mecklenburg County," says Rep. Bill Brawley, a Matthews Republican. "So the reason you would have co-chairs .... from each party is you’d have non-partisan leadership."

Brawley and some other Republicans are still chafed that Democrats convened their first delegation meeting in early January, at a time most Republicans had a conflict.

Graham says the group has always worked together, even under one chairman.

"We've always tried to work as a non-partisan group," he says. "Most of the issues locally are non-controversial.... If Bill will just come and participate, he’ll find that his voice will be heard just like everybody else."