CHAPEL HILL -- In a noisy political campaign that features biting rhetoric and sharp contrast, a band of business-oriented number crunchers is taking on Chapel Hill's liberal establishment to determine who will gain control of the Town Council and open mayoral seat.
Twelve candidates are running for five seats on the nine-member Town Council. Four of the 12 aim for the mayor's seat being vacated by Kevin Foy, who has his eye on a U.S. Senate seat.
With the Nov. 3 election just weeks away, the contest is shaping up as one of the most polarized tilts in the Triangle -- and in recent Chapel Hill memory. The five available seats could swing the balance of power away from the town's long-standing liberal majority, which has supported causes such as environmental protection, urban development patterns, panhandlers' rights and public campaign financing.
On the offensive are four businessmen, led by Matt Czajkowski, who has the safety net of two years left on his council term but is trying to build on his surprise win over incumbent Cam Hill two years ago with a run for mayor. A retired corporate finance officer, Czajkowski has the support of business people tired of dealing with Chapel Hill's notoriously arduous permitting process and a perceived dearth of parking, security and commercial vibrancy on Franklin Street.
Republican mayoral candidates Kevin Wolff and Augustus Cho are also trying to claim that constituency, but Czajkowski has resounding support from much of the business community.
Defending their turf are the Sierra Club-endorsed incumbents, led by two-term council-member Mark Kleinschmidt, who abandoned his council seat and staked his political future on the mayor's race. With them is Sierra-backed second-time council challenger Penny Rich, who wants to ban plastic bags from Chapel Hill grocery stores.
Kleinschmidt, an anti-death penalty attorney and gay-rights activist who came of age in Chapel Hill in the late'80s, has the support of Chapel Hill's political establishment -- several sitting and former council members and civil-rights veterans like restaurateur Mildred "Mama Dip" Council, NAACP lawyer Al McSurely and preacher Robert Seymour. Rich, along with council incumbents Laurin Easthom and Jim Merritt, has contributed to Kleinschmidt's campaign.
But "it may well be that there's a major shift that's about to happen," said Seymour, an 85-year-old retired Baptist minister and civil rights advocate who has watched Chapel Hill politics for half a century.
A Chapel Hill resident for nearly four decades, developer Carol Ann Zinn said Kleinschmidt stands in the lineage of Chapel Hill's activist, environmentalist past.
"Starting in the late '80s, Chapel Hill changed," Zinn said. "A lot of people moved here looking for a better quality of life. It's much more mainstream now. [Czajkowski's] one of those people. He chose to move here. I think he represents that."
A clear divide
Chapel Hill's political legacy has led to a robust public transit system, a rural buffer on the outskirts of town and strict affordable housing requirements, all of which increase the cost of development, driving up housing costs and real estate taxes. Those taxes, which Kleinschmidt acknowledges are among the highest in North Carolina, have put a target on his back.
Mass e-mails and letters have circulated urging a bloc vote for Czajkowski and Town Council challengers Gene Pease, Matt Pohlman, Jon DeHart and -- in some messages -- wild-card Will Raymond, a two-time Sierra Club endorsee and neighborhood advocate who often jabs the council on fiscal issues. Czajkowski's campaign donors include wealthy Chapel Hillians like the Kenan family and UNC Healthcare CEO Bill Roper.
"Matt Czajkowski is very familiar with the world of finance and business," said Zinn, who blasted the council last winter when it denied her a permit to build 58 condos on N.C. 54 near Interstate 40, helping to spark the pro-business movement. "These are different times from two years ago, four years ago. This is a world where everyone's talking about money."
Ironically, Czajkowski voted against Zinn's project along with the rest of the council, and it's not at all clear that he would make developing real estate any easier. He has openly criticized the gigantic East 54 project at the eastern entrance to Chapel Hill.
And Czajkowski and the two Republican mayoral candidates, Wolff and Cho, do not favor opening the "rural buffer," a strictly regulated ring around Chapel Hill and Carrboro and part of local government's environmentalist legacy.
"We have a real challenge to accommodate our growth in a way that does not dilute so much of what we love about this town," Czajkowski said at an election forum last week.
That kind of thinking may put Czajkowski between a rock and a hard place: In a town where people move from all over the United States to enjoy the quality of life, how do you preserve a rural buffer while maintaining a small-town feel inside it?
Kleinschmidt and his colleagues have decided you have to grow upward. The question is where, exactly, to permit mid-rise, mixed-use developments in the vein of East 54.
"I don't believe that our transit corridors or even our downtown is ever going to look like Fifth Avenue," Kleinschmidt said.
Early in the campaign, Zinn gave Kleinschmidt $20 because he's "caring and compassionate." But last week she gave Czajkowski $100 as he pushes past $20,000 in contributions.
"It's a different world," Zinn said. "I think that's a major factor in this election. You can't pretend that it doesn't affect you in one way or the other, because money is tight."
