Mayoral candidates make last push for voters

Charlotte Business Journal

Regional news

By RAD BERKY / NewsChannel 36 E-mail Rad: RBerky@WCNC.com

updated 12:45 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2009

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The focus of the mayor's race in Charlotte shifted Monday from getting the message out to getting voters out.

On the last day before the polls open, Democrat Anthony Foxx and Republican John Lassiter worked the phones, personally calling voters to remind them to vote and answer any last-minute questions.

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"You've got a lot of undecided voters and we know who they are," said Lassiter. "We're calling them one-by-one to do that last closing sale."

"It's really about going back to the folks we've been going to over the last six or seven months," said Foxx, as he hang up the phone after talking to a voter. "We're not taking anything for granted."

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Election Resources:• Find your polling place, view sample ballot• Mecklenburg Board of Elections

Video:Watch the final mayoral debate

Foxx and Lassiter are vying to become the first new mayor in Charlotte in 14 years. Incumbent Pat McCrory decided not to run for another term after losing to Beverly Perdue in the race for governor last November.

Both Lassiter and Foxx seemed to take special care in their remarks Monday, seemingly fearful of a misstep on the last day. But both men said they had no regrets about the campaign they waged.

"We sat here today and said, 'We've done everything we wanted to do,'" Lassiter said following a staff meeting.

Said Foxx, "You think it is one thing going in and it's another when you are in it. You just tough it out."