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Herb White, the Post's editor in chief, says Turner was damaged goods. "With what has happened with him in terms of these allegations as a sitting City Council member, that didn't help," White says. "Between that and what was going on with his parole job, it made it difficult not only for him to do his job, but for people to believe that their representative truly had his eye on the ball in representing their interests."
Mayfield, who won the primary with 51 percent of the vote, did not run her campaign by capitalizing on Turner's controversy. But the Raleigh-based Common Sense Matters organization spent $14,227 on glossy fliers sent to District 3 voters with the headline, "Warren Turner's Baggage." Not much is known about Common Sense Matters, except that it was formed two weeks before the election by Alan King, a Raleigh businessman and prominent member of the gay community. Mayfield, too, is gay, and if she wins in the forthcoming election, she could become the city's first openly gay elected official.
When Creative Loafing asked why Common Sense Matters would get involved in a Charlotte City Council election, the group's attorney, Michael Weisel, wrote in an e-mail, "My client, Common Sense Matters has no comment on any aspect of the Charlotte City Council election."
McCrory believes the "party machine" in Raleigh used the allegations against Turner to unseat him. "Someone spent thousands of dollars for a district city council election," McCrory says. "The machine got to him and his family, sadly."
Mitchell agrees with McCrory and says he had urged Turner to speak out but that Turner wouldn't. "If any females are going to accuse me of anything, oh yes, you're going to come forward and your name is going to be known," says Mitchell.
Turner, who now works as a vice president for an IT company, maintains that he didn't deserve what happened to him, and says he will do whatever it takes to protect his family.
Says McCrory: "I frankly wonder when is he going to get his name back. I think the media and other politicians have helped to destroy a father and a great husband. Most of the public doesn't know that [the sex allegations were] never proven."