Voters in NC's largest city elect Democratic mayor

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a mayoral race that focused on the faltering local economy, voters narrowly elected a Democrat Tuesday to lead North Carolina's largest city.

With most of the votes counted, Anthony Foxx was leading challenger John Lassiter, a Republican, by nearly 3,000 votes out of 105,000 cast. But Lassiter conceded defeat before the final, unofficial results were released by the Mecklenburg Board of Elections.

Foxx will replace Pat McCrory, a Republican who is stepping down after 14 years.

Lassiter congratulated Foxx in his concession speech.

"We've got a lot of good things to look back on because this race was about a lot of good things in the city," he said.

Foxx and Lassiter, both lawyers and city council members, promised voters they would focus on turning around the city's economy.

With the nation's banking meltdown, Charlotte has lost thousands of financial services jobs. Bank of America, one of the nation's largest banks, is headquartered here

Charlotte has a council-manager form of government, meaning the mayor and council make policy but a professional manager runs day-to-day operations. The mayor's post, considered a part-time position, pays $39,000 a year.

The city tends to lean Democratic,but has elected a Republican mayor for the past 21 years.

During the campaign, Foxx and Lassiter agreed that the next mayor will face a difficult economy that threatens the city's tax base.

Both said they would work to retain jobs and recruit new companies.

It was a relatively low-key campaign in the city of nearly 687,000 people. The candidates have appeared at debates and agreed on many issues.

They both voted for a 2 percent hotel tax increase to help build the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and supported extending the city's light rail line to the northern part of the city and suburbs to reduce traffic.

However, Lassiter and Foxx took different positions on a 2006 budget vote that increased property taxes by 9 percent. Lassiter opposed it, but Foxx supported the measure because it allowed for the hiring of 70 police officers.

Their most recent disagreement involved a proposed streetcar. Both candidates supported it in principle, but last month Foxx voted to override McCrory's veto of a $4.5 million engineering study for the line. Lassiter supported the mayor's position, saying it made no sense to pay for a study when there's no budget for the project.

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Nov 3, 2009 - 11:47 p.m. EDT

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