Hackney's advice to Foxx and Lassiter

Whatever their differences, Charlotte's mayoral candidates agree on one thing: the city needs a better relationship with Raleigh. Not surprisingly, both Democrat Anthony Foxx and Republican John Lassiter think they would have a better shot at making that happen.

So I asked House Speaker Joe Hackney when the Orange County Democrat was in town this week: How could Charlotte improve its standing in Raleigh?

"The key to that is a closer relationship with the legislative delegation," said Hackney. "The second thing that's important is achieving partisan unity on the issues that are important."

When Mecklenburg has achieved things in Raleigh, he said, it's usually because local officials are united.

Playing chicken in Charlotte's mayoral race

Around lunchtime today, someone came into John Lassiter's campaign headquarters and asked Perry Lucas a question: What's with the chicken?"

Lucas, Lassiter's campaign manager, went out to find a person in a yellow chicken suit parading in front of their Morehead Street office carrying a sign.

"Just Debate! Foxx is no chicken," it said.

The reference was to Monday's cancellation of a planned Oct. 27 League of Women Voters' debate between Lassiter, a Republican, and Democrat Anthony Foxx. It was to be televised on WTVI and WSOC. The League cancelled the hour-long debate when Lassiter wouldn't agree to six rebuttals, saying he wanted only three.

The person in the chicken suit -- a widespread tradition in debate politics --- was a volunteer for the Foxx campaign.

"This whole thing ... was just so ridiculous the way John was trying to take control of the conversation," said Foxx campaign manager Bruce Clark. "We thought this (chicken) was a way for the story to live on."

Said Lucas: "It was hysterical, but I was like, I cannot believe they're actually doing that it seemed a little below where I thought we'd be by now."

Charlotte candidates meet voters tonight

Charlotte's leading mayoral candidates as well as 20 city council candidates will meet voters tonight at separate events.

-- Democrat Anthony Foxx and Republican John Lassiter have been invited to speak to the Third Ward neighborhood organization. They'll discuss uptown issues from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Gateway YMCA, 900 W. Trade Street, Suite 100. It's unclear whether Republican mayoral candidates Jack Stratton and Martin Davis also will appear.

-- At-large council candidates and those from Districts 1, 4 and 5 will talk about East Charlotte at Hickory Grove Recreation Center Gymnasium, 6709 Pence Rd. The forum starts at 6:30 p.m. The forum is sponsored by Charlotte East Community Partners.

Foxx-Lassiter: Who's ahead depends on the poll

Republican mayoral candidate John Lassiter found some good news in a recent poll. But how good was it?

Cornerstone Solutions, a Raleigh-based polling firm, found that Lassiter leads Democrat Anthony Foxx, 42 percent to 26 percent, with 32 percent undecided. The findings are based on an automated phone survey of 401 Charlotteans.

A poll for Foxx, meanwhile, shows the race a dead heat.

Rule number 1: Be wary of polls done by a campaign for their candidate. Rule number 2: Be wary of all political polls, especially without several to go by and compare.

Cornerstone is a Republican consulting firm that also does polling. "We have no horse in this race," says partner Chris Sinclair of Raleigh.

Foxx campaign manager Bruce Clark questions Cornerstone's methodology. For example, while 34 percent of Charlotte voters are black, less than 14 percent of those in the Cornerstone survey identified themselves as African American. Almost 12 percent refused to disclose their race. Black voters are more likely to vote Democratic.

"Our poll," says Clark, "more accurately represents the breakdown of voters in the city."

Sinclair stands by his sample. He says part of the discrepancy could lie with those who refused to answer the race question. And he says his statisticians weighted the results based on the number of registered voters.

"We weighted it appropriately and feel good about the outcomes," he says.

One advantage of sites like realclearpolitics.com is that they present a number of polls on the same race over time, showing patterns.

MAYORAL FORUM TUESDAY

Foxx and Lassiter will talk about their views of uotown Tuesday night at the Third Ward neighborhood meeting at the Gateway YMCA, 900 W. Trade St. It starts at 7 p.m.

Foxx, Lassiter put styles on display at JCSU

Adding police? Moving a bookstore? Those were among the ideas that Charlotte mayoral candidates Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter outlined this morning to help overcome Charlotte's economic barriers.

The two spoke at a breakfast for the Charlotte Chamber's Inter City Visit at Johnson C. Smith University.

Foxx, a Democrat, talked about the importance of reducing crime in areas such as the Beatties Ford Road corridor, and touted a new police substation in the area to do just that. He also wants to streamline zoning and other regulations to make it easier for low-income areas to develop.

Lassiter, a Republican, threw a challenge to their host, JCSU President Ron Carter. Move the campus bookstore outside the school's fences to create a link to the community that could also spur other development.

He said such moves, along with city-aided development along Trade Street west of I-77 would help break the "noose" formed by that interstate and I-277 around the center city.

The two added their own styles to the discussion.

Foxx got personal in underscoring the racial and economic gaps in Charlotte today. He showed slides of himself as a boy with his grandmother, growing up a couple miles from the campus. He also showed a picture of the late Joe Martin, who got to know Foxx at West Charlotte High and wrote a recommendation that helped him get into Davidson College.

"Where are the Anthony Foxx's and Joe Martin's coming together now?" he asked.

Lassiter outlined more specifics -- extension of the Gold Rush trolley to JCSU, for example -- and touted his own life experience as a member of the school board and city council.

He described how he's bridged community divides by supporting renovations of inner-city schools and reaching out to minority contractors. Charlotte, he said, has to "find a way to do the kinds of things that bridge our relationships and work together."