Charlotte's showman mayor tries for bigger stage

Pat McCrory is telling the story of how he got President Bush not to visit Charlotte.

A surprise snowstorm had raised safety fears and spread police thin, McCrory says, and he persuaded the president to turn Air Force One around. McCrory puffs out his chest, hitches up his belt and inhales an air of exaggerated self-importance -- and the Republican breakfast group he's speaking to rewards him with their seventh burst of laughter in three minutes.

Then, to the biggest applause yet, comes the self-deprecating kicker: "I felt like Barney Fife!"

McCrory, Charlotte's seven-term mayor, is a natural showman. And as a Republican candidate for governor, he's looking for a bigger stage.

McCrory grew up watching his father serve as mayor pro tem in Columbus, Ohio. He became student body president at Ragsdale High near Greensboro.

In his first run for Charlotte City Council in 1989, he did a slow striptease to reveal a T-shirt given to volunteers in the recovery after Hurricane Hugo. He once went on a golf show to demonstrate how PGA golfers tip their hats to the crowd.

McCrory has ridden with police on drug raids, once escaping from a sawed-off shotgun pointed in his direction, and the experiences have helped make crime his central concern. He led a caravan of public safety officials to Raleigh last year to lobby for courts funding.

As mayor, McCrory tries to be everywhere -- at ribbon-cuttings, receptions and other public events -- and he never appears to tire of them.

He has the timing of a practiced comedian and the fiery rhetoric of an outraged community organizer. He says he tries never to turn down a debate.

"It's just the way he's wired," said John Lassiter, a friend and Republican member of the Charlotte City Council. "Some people are a little more introverted. He is very much an extrovert."

McCrory's disagreements are often public, too. In his early days as mayor, that gave him a reputation as a hothead, a grandstander with thin skin. He says he's matured.

"I think I've gained more wisdom, more knowledge, more leadership experience, a little more patience," McCrory said in an interview. "I'm accepting of critical critique, and I learn from that."

Planning to teach

McCrory, 51, was born in Ohio. He moved to North Carolina in the fifth grade when his father, an engineer, got a job in Guilford County.

He went to public schools, and he often tells a story about having to gargle soap his first day in North Carolina for not using "ma'am."

While attending Catawba College in Salisbury, McCrory worked as a student-teacher in Rowan County and planned to teach after graduation. But Duke Power (now Duke Energy) offered him a job before that, and he took it.

McCrory has held several positions with Duke, usually in management, and they eventually brought him to Charlotte. He worked in training and human resources, and most recently he was an economic development consultant with the company.

Last year, Democratic mayoral candidate Beverly Earle questioned whether working for Duke created conflicts of interest for the mayor. McCrory replied that he works to avoid conflicts and that serving as mayor has required professional sacrifices.

He left Duke this year to run for governor.

Crime fighter, mentor

McCrory recalls the killing of Charlotte police officer Gene Griffin in 1991 as a formative experience, personally and politically. Griffin was shot while working off duty as a hotel security guard.

It happened during McCrory's first term on the City Council, after he had campaigned on an anti-crime platform and during a peak in violent crime in Charlotte and the nation.