At last, the 2007 Mecklenburg sheriff’s race has ended.

Just as some U.S. historians have argued that the Civil War didn’t truly end until passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, I would argue that Mecklenburg County’s divisive process to replace former Sheriff Jim Pendergraph didn’t really end until Tuesday’s primary – when former supporters of state Rep. Nick Mackey effectively voted him out of office.

How are the two related?

In lots of ways.

For starters, I have never believed that Mackey was the rational choice of District 99 voters. His election to the state House in 2008 was nothing more than a protest vote against the questionable way in which, the previous year, Mackey was denied the Mecklenburg sheriff’s office after winning a special Democratic caucus. (His victory over Chip Bailey, Pendergraph's hand-picked successor, was overturned after party officials ruled that Mackey had improperly organized local precincts.)

Because of our history, we as African Americans have evolved senses that are especially keen to perceived slights and discrimination – even when the aggrieved party, some might say, is less than deserving.

Angry over how the Democratic caucus was overturned, blacks in Mackey’s district voted in large numbers to get even: They sent him to Raleigh.

As for Mackey himself, his past finally caught up with him -- in the voting booth, of all places.

Some Mackey supporters, no doubt, will blame the N.C. Bar for their candidate’s defeat. Less than 24 hours before the vote, the Bar announced that it was suspending Mackey’s law license for three years for conduct that included "acts of dishonesty."

Dirty pool? You bet. But did the state Bar really tell voters anything about Mackey that they didn’t know in ’08? Of course not.

I am convinced that, this year, some who supported Mackey in his first run for the state House simply grew tired of the drip-drip-drip of his odd behavior -- the complaints against him for unpaid bills, questionable business practices, late tax filings, allegations of misconduct as a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer and, finally, the Bar investigation.

Perhaps most offensive to some was Mackey’s apparent decision to cobble together a field of rag-tag candidates to run against some of the black community’s most well-known leaders – state Sen. Malcolm Graham and state Rep Beverly Earle – people he felt did not fully support his efforts to become sheriff.

Mackey denied having a hand in encouraging those candidates, but the evidence was suggestive. All of those candidates were beaten badly in Tuesday’s primary.

Mackey also failed in his personal demeanor. He was surly with the press and distant in a crowd. He possessed none of the charm that some successful pols use to paper over their flaws and shortcoming.

Oddly enough, Mackey as an elected official was far more effective. I listened to some of the pre-primary debate between him and Rodney Moore, the Charlotte businessman who thumped Mackey 62 percent to 38 percent in Tuesday's primary. As for Mackey's knowledge of the issues and his ability to articulate a vision, I found him to be more than qualified. While in Raleigh, he introduced some good legislation.

In the end, however, it all came down to character. Mackey’s record in office became secondary to the embarrassing antics of his personal life. And so, being satisfied with the protest votes they cast in ’08, the people of District 99 on Tuesday decided, mercifully, that they had punished us all enough.