Does John Lassiter even want to be mayor?

For someone running for mayor, Lassiter seems curiously lukewarm about the idea of being mayor.

He's shown his reluctance time and again during debates, saying repeatedly that he's a husband first, a businessman second and a public official third, and that if elected mayor he can "balance my responsibilities during the course of the day to make sure the job gets done," as he said during last week's debate at Queens University.

In case voters didn't get the point, he repeated himself to the Observer's Jim Morrill:

"I've found I can do a lot of things in a very focused way without having to be a full-time mayor. I don't think I have to significantly change my allocation of time to still be the kind of mayor Charlotte needs."

Isn't that reassuring? We certainly wouldn't want the office of mayor to be too much of an imposition on the man. He's awfully busy, after all.

He should rework some of his slogans.

"Lassiter: He'll squeeze us in."

"Lassiter: He won't significantly change his allocation of time."

"Lassiter: He'll get to that after lunch."

Seriously -- what is up with this guy? Can you think of any candidate during any election who's stressed his unwillingness to work too hard at the office he's running for?

Maybe it's his personality; no one's ever accused the man of being the life of the party, or the Party. Or maybe it's a characteristically Republican reluctance to govern even when running for, or holding, public office.

Whatever the case, you simply have to wonder about a mayoral candidate who observes that the common characteristic of mayors Pat McCrory, Richard Vinroot, Sue Myrick and Harvey Gantt is that "they were all private citizens with successful business lives."

Lassiter's been on the City Council for six years. You wonder how closely he's paid attention. Maybe he has a point on Gantt, Myrick and Vinroot. But McCrory?

Say what you will about Pat McCrory, but the guy has put in some serious hours as mayor. (You'd think Lassiter, one of the mayor's closest friends, would know this better than anyone.) Mike Collins, who was moderating the Queens debate, seemed surprised at Lassiter's observation. McCrory has handled the mayor's office as a full-time job, Collins correctly observed. He hasn't spent a lot of time as a special consultant for Duke Energy, his nominal regular gig.

Lassiter: "I don't claim to be Superman, but I'm willing to put in a hard day." Oh, good.

Neither Anthony nor Lassiter thinks the office of mayor should be, officially, a full-time job, with a "strong mayor" acting as the city's chief administrator; Curt Walton, as city manager, has that job under Charlotte's council-manager form of government. Here's the difference, though: Anthony believes the mayor ought to put in full-time hours doing the public's work. Lassiter seems to think "part-time mayor" means "part-time commitment."

It's not really a matter of giving the mayor more power under the city charter, which nobody wants; it's a matter of understanding how the mayor can wield his influence for the good of the nation's 19th-largest city.

Anthony gets it. The city faces some extraordinarily complex issues: transportation, public safety, education, housing. "I'm going to spend time away from my professional life," he told the crowd at Queens. "I don't think we're at a time when we can have a remote-control mayor. Someone's got to step in and engage."