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If Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo was a dog, he’d be a golden retriever.
He’s warm, loyal, effortlessly friendly–goofy even. But he’s also serious when necessary.
Saffo, who paired a navy blazer with sporty, gum-soled Pumas for an interview, agrees with this canine assessment (matching human personalities with dog breeds is an ongoing social media trend). “I’m a happy-go-lucky person,” he said.
At 63, Saffo has led Wilmington, the state’s most populous coastal city, for nearly 20 years.
He’s enjoyed mostly breezy victories. In a third of his mayoral races, including his latest last year, he ran unopposed. Nearly all municipal elections in North Carolina are nonpartisan, though that hasn’t stopped the local political parties from getting involved.
Even when city councils and county commissions tilt Republican or Democratic, Saffo keeps getting re-elected.
For the record, Saffio is a Democrat. He gives a hearty laugh when asked whether he thinks he’s been a good one: “Some people might think I’m a great Democrat, some people might say I’m not a Democrat at all.”
For The Assembly, Johanna F. Still profiles Wilmington’s longest-serving mayor: Mayor For Life
Benjamin Schachtman: Alright, Johanna Still thanks for being here.
JS: Thanks for having me.
BS: So in this week's edition of The Dive, you had an in-depth profile of Wellington's Mayor Bill Saffo. And you start by comparing him to a golden retriever, which apparently, he doesn't dispute, tell me a little bit about this.
JS: That is in reference to a sort of ongoing internet joke where people kind of categorize human beings with dogs. And so I think that that was sort of maybe just at the front of my brain when I was talking to him. And he was really just going into how much and it was really apparent how much he loves people, which is, you know, an admirable quality that other people have, and some people don't happen to love other people. So I think that just hearing him talk about his experience, I was just very quickly, like 'you're a golden retriever.' And he thought that, you know, that was funny. And he agreed that he fit that dog breed. It's not at all disparaging. It's just something that I you know, I thought it was just at the front of my mind. So that's how we dive into the story. But it's really more of a sort of historical look back on this man's legacy in our city. And really the kind of the question that we kind of had going into it, which is 'how does he keep getting reelected?' Right? He is on his 10th mayoral term, he has been elected to nine terms, and for three of them, he's run unopposed, sort of interestingly, he has really not faced any formidable conservative opponent for over a decade. And so sort of our premise is, 'nobody's coming for this guy's job in a way that is actually threatening.' So we wanted to look at how that could be.
BS: One of the things I remember was when Bill Saffo ran against former mayor Harper Peterson, Saffo fundraised 10s, if not over, I think almost $100,000 from conservative-leaning folks in a short period of time, but he is a Democrat. And you get into that some people have mixed feelings on Bill Saffo's role, not just as mayor, but as a Democrat, because he is so sort of broadly liked by conservatives and liberals alike.
JS: Right, you could definitely look at that as a pro or a con. And on the pro side, being more of a centrist politician, you know, you could potentially win over more voters, appease more people. On the con side, you're not as true to your more progressive side of your party. The Democratic Party chair didn't really have complaints about the mayor, actually, I mean, to be explicit, she didn't have any complaints about the mayor. And that's something that I found was interesting in reporting this piece, nobody was ready to openly criticize him. So he clearly goes to great lengths to maintain and keep up relationships with people in this city. And it's an interesting kind of approach to modern politics today, where we have increasing polarization, a lot of pressure to kind of speak out against certain positions and certain people. We mentioned that he attended former President Donald Trump's World War Two heritage ceremony in 2020. He called it you know, 'an honor.' So he has definitely done things and, you know, taking positions that are more of appealing to your sort of centrist or moderate voter. And so in today's world of politics, it's sort of a look at how that sort of or brand of politics can be effective. And clearly it's long-term effective because he has remained in office for more than 20 years.
BS: Yeah, I mean, despite the fact that I have heard criticisms about Saffo, specifically in many cases about development, and Saffo's sort of pro-development attitude, it also seems like he has remained sort of in touch with the public and accessible. Despite the fact that he keeps getting elected, he hasn't just become sort of a tyrant who's not responsive to his public. Although you note in your piece that the closest election he has had in recent history in 2019, against Devon Scott, did sort of change his perspective on some things.
JS: Right. So he, you know, he certainly has some critics and I believe, probably from a public-facing perspective, his weakest point would be the sort of trope that he is overly friendly to developers. You know, he's just kind of open-armed welcomed the clear-cutting that's happening around town. And so, the inflection point in 2019, when he had, you know, really his most competitive race yet. A lot of these things were happening at the same time. It was really a big boiling over point and so he lost some of that left-leaning base and where his opponent Devon Scott really kind of picked up and energized that segment. And so it seems that he learned some lessons from that race and that he started to embrace some of that criticism and try to tackle some of that overly aggressive developer characterization. And so he's clearly aware of the criticism. He's clearly aware of how a lot of the progressives view this and how they don't love this overdevelopment of our city, but he still sticks up for his industry. Of course, he comes from a real estate background. So it's interesting, he's just always kind of balancing all of these different interests, and, you know, always weighing everyone's point of view.
BS: Well, it's an interesting piece. I encourage people to read it — about a man who's become, in a lot of ways, synonymous with Wilmington itself. So I hope you'll check it out. But for now, Johanna Still thanks for being here.
JS: Thank you