Was Tom Fetzer the first Republican mayor of Raleigh?
As it turns out, no. But you'd have to go a long ways back to find his predecessor.
The candidate for the head of the state Republican Party has been touting his credentials in interviews and e-mails to supporters.
"In 1993, I was elected the first Republican Mayor in the history of Raleigh — a Democrat stronghold — in an election hailed by the Wall Street Journal as 'the most impressive reform victory in the country' that year," Fetzer wrote in a recent e-mail.
An alert Dome reader, however, points to Joseph W. Holden, a Republican who served as mayor from 1874 to 1875. (Incidentally, he was also a former speaker of the state House and son of impeached Gov. William Woods Holden.)
Dome, for one, is not going to be a stickler on this.
Fetzer can rightly claim credit for upsetting the city's 118-year reign of Democratic mayors, which we think is his point. And the N&O itself has described him as the city's "first Republican mayor" at least a half-dozen times in recent years.
And, well, Holden isn't exactly running for party chair.
Of course, there is one other little detail: The city's mayorship is nonpartisan.
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