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James' seat is safe in District 6
5 straight victories keep him in power despite spells of controversy
SCOTT DODD
Staff Writer
A decade's worth of controversial comments haven't hurt Bill James in the place that matters most: The district that keeps electing him.
District 6 is the most Republican, and arguably the most conservative, in Mecklenburg County. Voters there have elected James to represent them on the Board of County Commissioners since 1996 with little opposition.
"I think Bill's position on issues is consistent with what a majority of people in our district believe in," said Matthews Mayor Lee Myers, a Democrat who included himself in that group. "I think it's true on tax issues. I know it's true on school issues. I think it's true on religious and moral issues."
The votes certainly bear that out. The last time James had a challenger was the 2002 Republican primary. Only 17 percent of the district turned out to cast ballots, and James beat challenger Dick Yoder with 62 percent of the vote to Yoder's 38 percent.
Yoder focused his campaign on James' behavior, particularly his habit of picking loud political fights with his opponents. After his victory, James said, "The views that I hold, I believe, are mainstream for District 6."
He said much the same thing this week after County Manager Harry Jones reprimanded him for an e-mail in which James wrote that urban blacks "live in a moral sewer full of promiscuity."
"If somebody is going to go in and vote for me," James said Wednesday, "they know what they're getting."
District 6 is a mix of rural and suburban, with the towns of Matthews, Mint Hill and Pineville thrown in. For many voters there, the hottest political issues revolve around the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. As a member of the county board, James has been a strong voice against busing and for building more schools in the fast-growing suburbs.
Challengers say it's nearly impossible to beat him in District 6. Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans nearly 2-to-1, because of the way politicians draw districts to keep them locked up for one party or another.
"I was told from the very beginning that it was an overwhelming task," said Rita Arundell, a Democrat who faced James in 2000, getting only 36 percent of the vote.
Republican challengers who try to unseat him face an entrenched incumbent with high name recognition in a primary election where GOP partisans dominate the low turnout.
"Anybody that runs against Bill is going to get filthy dirty," said outgoing commissioners' Chairman Tom Cox, a Republican who often disagrees with James, "and it's going to be attack, attack, attack kind of campaign.".....................
On the streets of downtown Matthews, where Christmas wreaths decorate the light posts and a new bike shop just opened, it wasn't hard to find constituents who defended James on Thursday and said they found nothing racist about his opinions.
"I think he needs to take some classes in diplomacy, but there's a lot of truth to what he said," said Jonathan Roberts, a Realtor in Matthews. "You've got illegitimate births. You've got people not taking responsibility. You've got kids who have never heard the word `no' from their mothers -- certainly not their fathers, because they aren't around."
Roberts said liberal politicians aren't willing to deal with the real world. Democratic commissioner Parks Helms, he said, "makes me want to barf. He tries to sugarcoat everything. He's not a realist."
James received a lot of similar encouraging comments on Thursday in his favorite form of communication: e-mail.
"Right on!" wrote one fan. "As one of your constituents, I am proud of you for standing up and speaking the truth."................
-- STAFF WRITERS CARRIE LEVINE AND RICHARD RUBIN CONTRIBUTED.
-- SCOTT DODD: (704) 358-5168; SDODD@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM.
District 6 Demographics
| CATEGORY |
DISTRICT |
MECKLENBURG |
| Population |
133,448 |
764,418 |
| Growth 1990-2000 |
69% |
36% |
| White |
88% |
64% |
| Black |
7% |
28% |
| Median household income |
$75,324 |
$56,492 |
| Single-parent families |
16% |
31% |
| Registered voters |
93,862 |
500,883 |
| Registered Republicans |
48% |
34% |
| Registered Democrats |
27% |
44% |
| Bush voters |
66% |
47% |
SOURCES: Mecklenburg County Board of Elections; Claritas census data and estimates
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Posted on Fri, Dec. 03, 2004 |
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Blacks offer mixed reaction to James' assertions
Not all would disagree, but commissioner is no Bill Cosby, says pastor
CRISTINA BOLLING AND KEN GARFIELD
Staff Writers
Karen Giles is a 35-year-old black single mother from Bill James' district. Was the Mecklenburg County commissioner talking about her when he called the city's urban core "a moral sewer full of promiscuity that leads to illegitimate kids ..."?
Giles thinks so. And she's mad.
"Tell him to trade places with me for a week, and play catch-up on my bills. See how he likes that," she said. "And show me how he can deal with raising a 15-year-old son and a 6-year-old son and juggle jobs and still maintain a house."
But then she struck a rather James-ian note:
"Kids aren't illegitimate. They just have sperm donors who aren't being their fathers."
Reaction among the county's black residents to James' comments was equally complex, as people Thursday chewed over the statements at church meetings and restaurants, in car pools and business gatherings.
Some called for James to apologize and demanded that other Republicans denounce his remarks.
Others thanked James in hopes that his words might bring an outraged community together to deal with its problems.
And a few said they agreed with the issues James raised -- even the way he raised them -- and called for more frank talk.
James defended his remarks Thursday: "For 40-something years, we have ignored the plight of what some call the urban underclass. ... It's the racism of neglect, where you ignore an issue and hope it goes away."
Yet talk of a group's morals can draw volatile responses.
In May, Bill Cosby hurled a political fireball when he spoke about the lack of parenting and education among lower-class blacks. But some interviewed Thursday said James' comments strayed far from Cosby's, and not just because James is white.
"Bill Cosby has affirmed the black community," said the Rev. Claude Alexander, senior pastor at predominately black University Park Baptist Church. "The critique that he issued comes from a different place than Bill James'."
Local black activist John Minter said James' attack on the black community's morals bothered him the most. "If you look at it from a moral standpoint, take a middle-class woman who gets pregnant and has an abortion. Is she any more moral than a 13-year-old who gets pregnant and has a baby?" he said.
"I would argue there is just as much immorality outside the inner-city. It's just a question if you can pay to get yourself out of it."
But Charles Jackson, a black UNC Charlotte graduate and east Charlotte resident who teaches in Kannapolis, said black leaders are "using (James) as a scapegoat."
"We should be creating neighborhood initiatives, fatherhood initiatives, mentoring initiatives. Our black leaders don't want to get involved in those things.
"I think the guy is right."
Laura McClettie, president of Mecklenburg County's black Democratic caucus, said James' vocal opposition to Sunday voting inspired more blacks to vote.
In the same way, she thanked James for harnessing energy in the black community again, this time out of anger over his e-mails.
"What I think he does is bring the attention and awareness level up higher than it is, and it gets more people mobilized and involved in taking a stand," she said.................
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