‘God restores.’ Speaking to Black leaders in Charlotte, former mayor Cannon apologizes.
Speaking to members of the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg on Saturday, former mayor and current City Council candidate Patrick Cannon apologized for crimes that led him to federal prison in 2014.
“I made a mistake and I will tell you right here, right now, I’m never ever going to make that mistake again. Period,” he said. “If I never knew it then, I know now what it’s like to be away from my family. If I never knew then what it was like to be away from you, the people here in this city that I love, I know now.”
Cannon’s return to Charlotte politics comes eight years after he was convicted of accepting more than $50,000 in bribes while in office, first as a City Council member then as mayor. He served nearly two years in prison.
He’s now running for one of the four at-large seats on City Council, meaning he’d represent the entire city, rather than a district, if he’s elected.
He’ll face five Democratic competitors in the May primary, including current and former City Council members. They are at-large council members Braxton Winston and Dimple Ajmera, District 1 councilman Larken Egleston, former councilwoman LaWana Slack-Mayfield and former councilman James “Smuggie” Mitchell.
Five Republicans are also running in their own primary: Charlie Mulligan and Kyle J. Luebke, who both participated in the Black Political Caucus forum on Saturday, and Carrie Olinski, David Merrill and David Michael Rice.
Cannon’s statement came during a question about campaign contributions from developers, which most candidates said they had accepted — though they assured voters that the money would not buy their votes as council members.
He was released in 2016 after he served about half his sentence.
“I’m telling you I believe today that God restores, that he replaces and that he repairs,” Cannon said, receiving applause at the end of his statement.
Candidates speak on affordable housing, economic mobility
The City Council at-large race could be one of the most competitive on the ballot. Every Democratic competitor is either an incumbent or former City Council member, and the race comes as topics such as housing prices, economic opportunity and racial equity are at the forefront for many voters.
During the forum Saturday, candidates generally agreed on the problems at hand, but sometimes disagreed on how much progress has been made and what solutions should be pursued.
The incumbents pointed to the city’s 2040 plan, a development and land use plan aimed at managing growth.
Ajmera said the plan was long overdue — the first of its kind in decades — and will be managed through an “equitable lens” to help underserved communities.
Winston said he is pushing the city to invest in the buying of land where development is likely to occur, which would give the city leverage in saying what kind of development is allowed.
Egleston pointed to the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative, a $250 million plan that includes $72 million of public funding for digital efforts and opportunity corridors.
Other candidates said more could be done.
Mayfield said she wanted to see more checks-and-balances as it relates to the Equity Initiative, including having more community voices at the table. The majority of the funding in the initiative comes from the private sector.
Mitchell said he wanted to see stronger financial support for nonprofits, particularly those that are trying to reduce violent crime among young Black residents. He also wants to see more funding for police resource officers in schools.
Speaking on affordable housing, Cannon said he wished the city would focus more effort on lifting people out of poverty, particularly through supporting blue-collar work and businesses.
The Republican candidates, speaking to a largely-Democratic audience, focused much of their time on arguing that the status quo has not, over the years, led to enough quality-of-life improvements in the city, particularly for minority communities.
“The affordable housing crisis in Charlotte … is getting worse and worse and worse,” Mulligan said. “The announcements are wonderful, I see a lot of them in this city — I don’t really see the results.”
The primary election is May 17.
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 4:45 PM.
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