It may be the second-most-noteworthy thing about the now infamous poll conducted during City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton's 2007 re-election campaign - the response to a name-recognition question. After serving on the council since 1995, and thinking she might have a shot at a citywide office in the future, Holton surely had to be taken aback by these results:
More than half of the respondents in her district either didn't know who she was or were only vaguely familiar with her.
The most noteworthy thing about the poll, of course, is why Holton is probably better known at this point: The survey was paid for by developer Ronald Lipscomb, and it forms the basis of her indictment in January on charges of bribery, perjury and misuse of office. After Lipscomb footed the bill for the poll, Holton helped push through millions of dollars of tax breaks for development projects he had a stake in.
The poll emerged this week as part of the developer's efforts to get bribery charges against him dismissed. Lipscomb claims that paying for it was not a bribe but a legitimate campaign contribution - which is fast becoming quite the oxymoron the more we learn about how City Hall doles out contracts and tax breaks.
"Baltimore, 8th City Council District, The Political Landscape: An Analysis" may not be quite the page-turner that previous documents in the long-running investigation into City Hall corruption have proved to be. There's nothing about whirlwind trips to New York or shopping jaunts on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, as Lipscomb is accused of taking with Mayor Sheila Dixon; there aren't even any gift cards that were supposed to go from the developer to needy families but, prosecutors allege, took a detour through the mayor's own mall-hopping.
And yet, the poll offers a behind-the-scenes look at one slice of the entangled saga of Dixon, Holton and Lipscomb, whose Doracon construction company has its hand in some of the most prominent developments in town, from the convention center hotel to Silo Point to the ones that have gotten him in hot water because of his influence at City Hall, such as the Four Seasons/Legg Mason tower under construction at Inner Harbor East.
For one thing, we find out that the apparently free-spending Lipscomb - among other past revelations, he gave Dixon a $2,000 gift certificate to a furrier and dropped $500 at a Saks makeup counter during their Chicago shopping spree, according to court documents - isn't necessarily someone who always goes top-of-the-line.
