In Wednesday's fundraising e-mail, Lassiter asked supporters for $70,000 "in the next 72 hours" to help "send a message to my opponent's campaign that Charlotte cannot be bought."We'll leave you to chew on the, er, somewhat obvious logical contradiction there.
It's the race's big ninth-inning kerfuffle, over campaign contributions, and from whom they come, and where those people live, as detailed in this morning's Observer story.
Anthony and Lassiter have raised roughly the same amount of money (as of the Oct. 26 campaign filing deadline, Anthony had raised $561,892, Lassiter $511,529). Lassiter has raised more, far more, from real estate developers; Anthony has raised more from out of state (though still only 10 percent of his total).
John Lassiter seems to think this is a big ol' deal. From the Observer:
"Their agenda is set on priorities that are not aligned with the priorities of the citizens of Charlotte," he said Thursday. "We have focused our fundraising on folks who live and work in this community."Really. What do you say? Dude: Ten percent. Anthony, you see, has friends and colleagues outside of Mecklenburg County who are willing to back him because they know him and the kind of man he is. That's the purest, most quid pro quo-resistant kind of contribution. It's not like James Bernfield of Brooklyn, N.Y. ($50 contribution, Sept. 16), is expecting a little reciprocal on a rezoning in Dilworth. And aren't we supposed to be strengthening our ties with people and places outside of Charlotte?
We've already covered the beholden-to-developers angle. Just recognize this whole dust-up for what it is: a bright-red herring served up by a candidate who senses he's about to lose.
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