Democratic Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx received an interesting question during a Web chat hosted by The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
"Would you consider challenging (Gov.) Beverly Perdue in a primary next year?" one person asked.
"I am happy being the mayor of Charlotte," Foxx replied.
Later in the chat, another questioner pressed him again: "Would you promise not to run against (Perdue) in the primary?"
Foxx replied: "Until you asked the question, I had never given the matter a second of thought. So, no."
The ambiguous answers left the door open for Republicans to question his motivations. Afterall, Foxx is way ahead (58-32 percent) in a recent PPP poll but raising crazy sums of campaign cash, hiring top notch national consultants and spending big on television advertising. And privately, Democrats say that Foxx, a co-chairman of the DNC Convention host committee, is the only politician who could really challenge Perdue for the party's gubernatorial nomination.
But Foxx campaign spokesman Michael Halle tells Dome there's no equivocation on the mayor's part.
"No," Halle said when asked if the mayor may challenge Perdue. "Absolutely not." Asked again, for good measure, Halle said: "He will not be challenging Bev Perdue."
