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Maybe that's why he will probably run for governor again, "better than a 50-50 chance." "I feel like there's public service still in my blood."

At one of the most recent of those Monday night meetings, one of the last he will preside over, he was true to form, opening the meeting in a casual way, without the benefit of a gavel. ("If you have to use the gavel, you've already lost control.")

"My name is Pat McCrory, mayor of the city of Charlotte," he said. Then, after a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and before getting down to the business at hand, it was time for a photo-op with Miss North Carolina.

Mary C. Curtis, a Charlotte-based writer, editor and multimedia journalist, is a contributor to PoliticsDaily.com and NPR. Her "Keeping It Positive" commentary airs every Wednesday at 7:20 a.m. on Fox News Rising Charlotte.