Weinbrecht ousts McAlister in Cary

Challenger Harold Weinbrecht, who rode a tide of citizen concern about the effects of rapid growth in the Triangle's third-largest town, has been elected mayor of Cary, defeating incumbent Ernie McAlister.

Weinbrecht, 51, is a SAS software developer who served on Cary's council from 1999 until his ouster in 2003.

McAlister, 50, a retired banker, served one term as mayor.

Also winning in Cary were incumbent at-large councilman Erv Portman and newcomer Gale Adcock in District D.

Cary's District B race will feature North Carolina's first-ever "instant runoff" election between challengers Don Frantz and Vickie Maxwell, who both placed ahead of incumbent Nels Roseland. The election will be determined next Tuesday by counting the second-place choices of Roseland's supporters.

Cary's officially nonpartisan elections were widely seen as a referendum on the pace and quality of growth in the Triangle's third-largest city.

They followed a seismic election shift in 1999 toward slower growth and then a strong pro-growth rebound in 2003.

In some ways the campaigns were a classic confrontation between development interests and neighborhood activists. But more than that, the elections were an indicator of the unease many residents of the Triangle feel about the region's rapid growth in an era of traffic congestion, crowded schools and dwindling water supplies. Every Cary candidate campaigned on growth in some way.

The mayor's race turned more negative in the final weeks.

A Weinbrecht mailer faulted McAlister for taking most of his campaign money from "development special interests," cutting development fees, saying yes to developers, cutting the town's road-building budget, neglecting the environment and voting "for mega-developments at congested intersections."

McAlister raised five times as much campaign money, most of it from the development industry, and advertised heavily. He contended a Weinbrecht victory would undermine Cary's financial health, deter private investment and lead to higher taxes in the town of about 123,000 people between Raleigh and Research Triangle Park.

One McAlister TV ad said: "Four years ago, voters rejected him. Now he wants to come back and raise your taxes. Cary can't afford Weinbrecht."

Weinbrecht got help from supporters who ridiculed McAlister in amateur online videos and song parodies, such as an Elton John knockoff "Ernie and the debts," and a folksy ballad warbling that "the mayor listens to the ones with the dough."