Charlotte mayor arrested by FBI on corruption charges

[Miles]

Wow.

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This is like his 3rd month in office

If convicted on everything, he faces up to 20 years in jail and $1 million in fines.

This is like Ray Nagin type stuff...

[Miles]

The City Council will need to select a replacement from the same party. From the sound of things, there won't be a special election.

[Miles]

And he's out.

[Miles]

I really don't understand the point of such blatant corruption; surely you'd think corrupt pols would be more subtle, or even not do the corruption in the first place, and wait until later in their career when they could shrug it off.

This guy would walk around with $20,000 in cash in his briefcase. At least Bill Jefferson had the sense to hide his cash in the freezer.

[Miles]

The council met today and decided to take an appointment vote next Monday.

Probably the most important thing out of today is that they want a placeholder:

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[Miles]

State Sen. Dan Clodfelter will be the interim mayor.

[Miles]

No, there aren't any term-limits in the NC Assembly. He was (is) still regarded as an effective legislator, but his career in the NCGA has seen better days. He's wanted to be mayor for a while, so this seems like a good capstone for his career.

That was one of the criticisms the folks who were calling for a special election had. Officially, the council couldn't do anything to ensure the Cannon replacement wouldn't run in 2015. That said, I doubt he goes for it, and the optics would be terrible if he did.