WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-Foxx wins as mayor; Burke voters oust school board

Foxx wins as mayor; Burke voters oust school board

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CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV/AP) - Voters narrowly elected a Democrat to be Charlotte's next mayor during Tuesday's election.  Voters also removed a group of school board leaders in Burke County after a contentious few months that saw the ouster of their superintendant.

In the Charlotte mayoral race, Democrat Anthony Foxx received 54,676 or 51 percent of the total votes cast, beating his Republican Challenger John Lassiter who received 51,788 votes. 

Lassiter conceded defeat to Foxx around 10 p.m. before the final numbers were released by the Mecklenburg Board of Elections.

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Click here for election results and more.

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Foxx will replace Pat McCrory, a Republican, who is stepping down after serving as mayor of North Carolina's largest city for 14 years.

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, which is one of the nation's largest banks, is headquartered in Charlotte.

There are also several other elected positions in the area that were up for grabs on Tuesday, including school boards in Burke County and Mecklenburg County.

Six seats on the Charlotte City Council were up for grabs Tuesday. Four of those were at-large candidates in a crowded field of nine.  The top four vote-getters were elected.

In Charlotte's District 6 race, Republican incumbent Andy Dulin, a real estate broker, was seeking third term and facing off against Democratic challenger Jane Bott Childrey.

In the District 7 race, incumbant Warren Cooksey easily beat his competitor, Marc Friedland.

One of the high-profile races outside Mecklenburg County was the Burke County Board of Education where many voters were anxious to clean house. 

Board Chair Tracy Norman was overwhelmingly thrown out of office which was an obvious backlash to the board's ouster of former superintendent David Burleson.

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WBTV's Steve Ohnesorge will look into the Burke County results and examine what the future holds for the school board. Watch WBTV Channel 3 tonight for a full report.

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The four members of the so-called SWAT team, a group of two incumbents and two newcomers all won victories by margins of almost nine to one.  The group wanted to change the majority block on the board, the majority that kicked out popular superintendent David Burleson in June and has also been under fire for its spending.

All four of the candidates won big including newcomers Catherine Thomas and Susan Stroup, and incumbents Sam Wilkinson and Buddy Armour.

The wife of ousted superintendant David Burleson joined the celebration.  She told us her husband, who is now in Winston Salem, was happy with the results and she's ready to say 'goodbye' to the old school board.

Normally, new school board's are sworn in the first week of December, but the law only says the swearing in can take place after the votes are certified and that will be complete in a week.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)