"Jim Black's replacement, youngest legislator. That's how I was introduced," Cotham said recently.

Mecklenburg County Democrats chose Cotham in March to replace former House Speaker Jim Black, who had resigned amid a corruption scandal. At 28, she became the youngest member of the General Assembly.

Few still associate her with Black, a Matthews Democrat serving a federal prison term in Pennsylvania. But Cotham said she still gets comments about her age. Some are complimentary -- youth groups from across the state ask her to speak -- but others are not.

"Sometimes people take you for granted," she said, "or they assume that maybe they don't have to show you as much respect as they would to someone who's a 65-year-old freshman."

It's "a sad thing," Cotham said, to have only one state legislator younger than 30. She said her youth gives her a longer view than other legislators because she'll be around to witness the long-term effects.

"Someone here who may be in their 60s or 70s, they'll talk about how policy will affect their grandchildren," she said. "But we're making policy that will affect the rest of our lives."

A former teacher at East Mecklenburg High and currently on leave as an assistant principal there, Cotham recently was appointed to a committee overseeing education policy and to another studying gang prevention and enforcement.

Cool under pressure

Nancy Bartles, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools superintendent, served as Cotham's mentor during an administrative internship at Independence High. Cotham was young for someone about to become a principal, but Bartles said she was calm in stressful situations.

"Age is not always an indicator for success," Bartles said.

Nor is age an indicator of timidity.

In an interview, Cotham, who spent hours negotiating an expansive anti-gang bill this year, accused Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory of delaying the bill by "throwing a tantrum" and criticizing legislators to the media in June.

"That was not a way to build bridges, and that was a setback," Cotham said. "[The things he was saying] were not well-founded. He obviously had not read the bill."

McCrory, a Republican, led a five-bus caravan to Raleigh in February to lobby for more money for the criminal justice system.

"That is an example of the arrogance of Raleigh," McCrory said after hearing of Cotham's comments. "Raleigh has got to open its eyes and ears to the people of the state and stop playing these political games while there are people dying in the streets."

Cotham said she takes the issue as seriously as anyone, and she knows it better than most because of her work at East Mecklenburg.

A running start

As is the case with most freshman legislators, few of Cotham's bills became law this year. Mecklenburg County has three other freshmen in the House -- Charlotte Republicans Ric Killian and Ruth Samuelson and Huntersville Republican Thom Tillis -- though they have a few months' more seniority.

Cotham is expected to face at least one challenger, former Mecklenburg commissioner Lloyd Scher, in May's Democratic primary. Most of the district is in East Charlotte.

When legislators reconvene in Raleigh in May, shortly after the primary, Cotham said the gang legislation will be her top priority. At least some colleagues expect her to get a fast start.

"When she came in the first few weeks of the session, she was at a great disadvantage," said Rep. Melanie Wade Goodwin, a Richmond County Democrat. "I was extremely impressed with how quickly she's gotten up to speed."