Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said he’s proud that Orange County provided a historical number of votes for Sen. Hagan’s unsuccessful re-election bid in November.

However, he adds that while it demonstrates the power of Democratic politics in the county, it also shows the difference between Orange County and much of North Carolina.

As 2015 begins, the mayor said it’s time to find some common goals in a challenging political climate.

“The people in Chapel Hill and Orange County are going to get very little attention or interest on the issues that we care about from our legislature, or our governor, or our U.S. Senate, or anyone in Congress,” said Kleinschmidt, “if we don’t figure out a way to have conversations across the political divides.”

Speaking to WCHL recently, Kleinschmidt, a Democrat, praised Republican Gov. Pat McCrory for reaching across the divide on one issue that’s important to them both.

“I think the governor has shown us that, at least inasmuch as he’s come out and been actually supportive of our regional transit system, even in the face of member of his own party trying to destroy the plan from Wake County,” said Kleinschmidt. “He said, as far as he’s concerned, the state will be there for the Durham-Orange County part of the regional transit plan.”

The poisonous climate in Washington, D.C., where political compromise is often rejected in favor of winner-take-all stances, is not only reflected in state legislatures, but sometimes in municipal governments as well.

Kleinschmidt experienced some angry battles in 2014, such as the Ephesus-Fordham rezoning, that pitted people from within his own political spectrum against each other.

He said he hopes that people can begin to understand again that not getting everything you want in a political argument is not the same thing as losing.

“I’m concerned that, in 2015, Chapel Hill will adopt these more contentious, almost partisan conflicts that we’re seeing in Raleigh and in Washington, where you are entirely a winner, or entirely a loser,” he said.