I know we don’t do politics much on here but with Mayor McFarlane announcing she won’t seek re-election, I dare say this will be one of the most important mayoral races in Raleigh’s recent history. Will Raleigh elect a mayor who seeks to continue downtown’s growth and progress or will the protectionists push in a mayor who slows growth? It’s going to be an interesting election cycle to say the least.
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As long as neither Russ, Cox, or Crowder run for Mayor. These three in my opinion are the council of No on anything positive happening downtown. The city needs more council members like Nicole Stewart.
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I’m worried it’ll be the latter. I hope not tho.
I agree this one is very important. Nancy has done well by the city (and I say that as not a member of her party). She has done things that are very important that may of us don’t see … like understanding that infrastructure is very important to growth. It’s not just an accident that we can build and grow like we have downtown and have the fundamental infrastructure to support it. So remember when you go to the polls to look beyond the “I support xxxx and yyyy” and be sure the candidate that gets your vote is more than a mouthpiece and understands how a city like Raleigh works (and grows).
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Thanks for starting the thread @JosABanks. I’d like to expand the topic to everything related to the elections in October.
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As long as neither Russ, Cox, or Crowder run for Mayor. These three in my opinion are the council of No on anything positive happening downtown.
Did you forget about Stef Mendell?
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I was going to say this too but didn’t want to even speak the thought into the universe.
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My favorite quote from the article.
“In 2017, she beat challenger Charles Francis — 58 to 42 percent with 17 percent of registered voters turning out.”
Last time I checked we had less than 300k registered voters, that comes out to roughly 50k people voting.
More people attend the State home football games than that.
The comments people left on WRAL are confusing to say the least.
“Parks and palatial public housing and potholes everywhere”
“Hopefully the next mayor will work on roads infrastructure. Potholes, traffic jams on Capital blvd. the worst road in the city.”
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“Palatial public housing…” lol… Turn out for municipal elections is abysmal… people just don’t seem to have interest which is crazy because these elections arguably have more impact on their lives individually than national elections do.
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Who among the current city council members do you think will run? My initial guess would be Russ.
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Crowder seems interested. Edit: She confirmed she’s NOT running
I might write in Leo
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Capital Blvd is a US Highway and not a city street. Not much any Mayor can do about that…
Any specifics that make you say Crowder is interested? Honest question.
From what I understand, Nancy is not a member of either party. She serves as an independent.
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From the Business Journal article about Nancy not running:
As McFarlane suggested in her video, the current council has become more unpredictable. Developers are wary about raising public concerns that could irritate the council but privately voice reservations about how their projects might be received.
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Pure speculation on my part. She’s been critical of Nancy the past couple of years.
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I think you are correct. Either way, I think she has done a good job.
Indeed, though she originally ran as a Democrat.
I think it’s great that she doesn’t identify with a particular party anymore. Raleigh is one of very few large cities in the U.S. with an politically unaffiliated mayor.
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Latest that I’m aware of:
Not running
- Nancy McFarlane (Mayor)
Announced will be running
- Nicole Stewart (at-large)
No announcement
- Russ Stephenson (at-large)
- Dickie Thompson (District A)
- David Cox (District B)
- Corey Branch (District C)
- Kay Crowder (District D)
- Stef Mendell (District E)
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I would be OK with Dickie Thompson running as well.
He is pro-development, considering his work with J.M. Thompson Co.
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