A coalition of African-American and Korean ministers endorsed the re-election of Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend during a rally at a Northwest Baltimore Baptist church attended by nearly 400 people last night.
Democrats Glendening and Townsend received the endorsement of the United Baptist Missionary Convention of Maryland and the Council of Korean Churches in Maryland during the rally at Concord Baptist Church. The event was not a fund-raiser, organizers said.
The event was attended by more than 40 ministers; state Sens. Nathaniel J. McFadden of East Baltimore and Joan Carter Conway of Northeast Baltimore; and Dels. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam West Baltimore and Baltimore County, Talmadge Branch of East Baltimore, Ann Marie Doory of Northeast Baltimore and Frank D. Boston Jr. of West Baltimore.
"There has never been a governor who has given the minority community the kind of access that [Glendening] has given us," said the Rev. John L. Wright, president of the United Baptist Missionary Convention of Maryland, which represents 200 Baptist churches statewide.
"He's helped us with economic revitalization, helping us to rehabilitate neighborhoods in and around our churches around the state of Maryland," Wright said.
"We were among the people who asked him to appoint Robert Bell to the [chief] judgeship [of the Maryland Court of Appeals], and he didn't disappoint us," Wright said. "We asked him to oppose casinos in the city of Baltimore and he didn't disappoint us. And we asked him to be fair in his appointments in his administration and he has not disappointed us."
Wright said the Baptist churches have a membership in Maryland of 300,000 people, "and we're going to marshal those people for Parris Glendening."
Pub Date: 8/01/97
