A simmering feud between Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and the head of Charlotte’s Black Political Caucus escalated over the weekend with a news release about a caucus-sponsored candidate debate.
Caucus Chair Colette Forrest’s Sunday release said Roberts would not participate in a May 18 mayoral debate.
“It just makes us feel that she does not respect nor truly value the African-American vote,” Forrest wrote. On Monday she emailed again, asking, “Are African-Americans Mere Facebook Props to Mayor Jennifer Roberts?”
But Roberts will attend the debate, or at least part of it.
“The press release is false,” Sam Spencer, Roberts’ campaign manager said Monday. “Mayor Roberts is attending the debate… Yet again, these attacks on Mayor Roberts are out of bounds, totally false, and personal.”
On getting an invitation to the debate last week, Spencer emailed a caucus official. He said Roberts had multiple commitments on May 18 and another event that night at 7 p.m. that day. He said she’d have a “30-minute window at most” for the 6 p.m. debate. He also called it “pretty late notice.”
“There’s nowhere in that language that I see a ‘yes’,” Forrest said Monday.
Spencer said Roberts has a 7 p.m. commitment to attend an awards banquet for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
(Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article149252849.html)
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