Carl Stokes

Carl Stokes, a founder of a Baltimore charter school, was elected unanimously by the City Council to fill a vacant seat in the 12th District, returning him to the body on which he served for eight years. The 59-year-old Stokes, who was first elected to the council in 1987, is the co-founder and chief operating officer of East Baltimore's Bluford Drew Jemison Math Science Technology Academy. He fills the seat vacated by Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who is now the council president. Stokes' election is the last in a series of moves triggered by Sheila Dixon's resignation as mayor.

The incumbent ditched a mayoral bid at the last minute, deciding instead to try to hang on to his seat representing parts of Charles Village, Oliver, Remington and Station North. His challengers include a community activist who hopes to be the Baltimore City Council's first Latina member, an openly gay neighborhood leader who patrols the streets of Mount Vernon on a Segway and a college senior who has snagged the governor's endorsement. And then there's the labor leader, security guard and East Baltimore activist.

Don't look now but Carl Stokes is a credible and substantial candidate for mayor. Bill takes one look at Slobodan Milosevic and sees Ken Starr. Send more bombers. First Maryland, a subsidiary of Allied Irish, paid big bucks to think up Allfirst Financial for its new moniker, when it could have had free advice to adopt Allied American instead. If the Great One has retired, can the Iron Man be far behind? Pub Date: 4/21/99

On Thursday, the City Council fulfilled our low expectations by selecting a well-connected convicted criminal over better qualified and law-abiding candidates for the vacant council seat in the 9th District ( "Despite criminal record, council picks Welch for seat," Jan. 6). This is the same City Council that turned a blind eye to the illegal activities of Sheila Dixon and Helen Holton and appointed another person of questionable integrity, Carl Stokes, to the council seat vacated by Jack Young (who has his own well-documented ethical issues)

Today in history: Nov. 7In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly magazine.In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.In 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.In 1967, Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor of a major city -- Cleveland, Ohio.In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first elected black governor in U.S. history; David N. Dinkins was elected New York City's first black mayor.

CARL Stokes, who is running for mayor of Baltimore, made the following statement the other day: "I want to set the record straight and clear up any confusion. I would not want an error like this to create a misperception about me." What misperception? The misperception that Carl Stokes is a college graduate? I might be wrong, but it sounds like ole Carl has stumbled across a new campaign theme: The city of Baltimore has had 12 years of an Ivy League-Rhodes Scholar Mayor and what has that gotten us?

On Thursday, the City Council fulfilled our low expectations by selecting a well-connected convicted criminal over better qualified and law-abiding candidates for the vacant council seat in the 9th District ( "Despite criminal record, council picks Welch for seat," Jan. 6). This is the same City Council that turned a blind eye to the illegal activities of Sheila Dixon and Helen Holton and appointed another person of questionable integrity, Carl Stokes, to the council seat vacated by Jack Young (who has his own well-documented ethical issues)

Unlike Chicago, dead people seldom vote in Baltimore elections. That does not mean that the Monumental City is without traditions of skulduggery, though. Just ask Carl Stokes.Mr. Stokes is the city councilman who wanted to go to the state Senate from East Baltimore's 45th District and then use his victory to build momentum for a campaign for City Council president.Whether any of that is going to happen is now uncertain because a political unknown named Clyde A. Stokes filed to oppose him, thus effectively giving the election away to Nathaniel J. McFadden.

SOME PEOPLE get it. Carl Stokes, for example, and Martin O'Malley, too. And legislators such as Clarence Blount and Jim Campbell and Tony Fulton who stand on one side of the street, and those such as Pete Rawlings and Joan Carter Conway standing on the other, but not so far away that they can't hear echoes of each other's heartbeats in the midst of political struggle.And some people don't get it. Julius Henson, for example, and Nathaniel McFadden, too. Henson tried to turn this mayoral campaign into the slummy revival of 1995.

Well, I got my man.After watching last night's televised debate among Carl Stokes, Martin O'Malley and Lawrence Bell, it's clear to me who should be the next mayor of Baltimore.Unfortunately, Kweisi Mfume isn't running.He only moderated last night's debate -- but such is his stature that each candidate, eager to show his intimate relationship with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People leader who walked away from his own sure shot at City Hall, declared, "Well, Kweisi," at the beginning of each answer with such lock-step response that viewers might have imagined Mfume held the only vote in town.

Remember when the worst thing a Baltimore City Council member brandished was a shoe? On Thursday, the council will consider adding to its ranks a man who fired a .38-calber gun during an argument over $40. Does that make aspiring councilman William "Pete" Welch a menace to society — or a law-and-order man, as he claimed at the time of the 1999 incident? "I shot at the ground to restore order," Welch told police, according to court documents. Welch offered another explanation this week when the council grilled him and three others seeking to fill the council seat vacated by his mother, Agnes Welch , The Baltimore Sun's Jessica Anderson reported.

Carl Stokes, a founder of a Baltimore charter school, was elected unanimously by the City Council to fill a vacant seat in the 12th District, returning him to the body on which he served for eight years. The 59-year-old Stokes, who was first elected to the council in 1987, is the co-founder and chief operating officer of East Baltimore's Bluford Drew Jemison Math Science Technology Academy. He fills the seat vacated by Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who is now the council president. Stokes' election is the last in a series of moves triggered by Sheila Dixon's resignation as mayor.

Carl Stokes fills his days working to get a new all-male city charter school off the ground. The former 2nd District Baltimore City Council member who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1999 wants to open the Bluford Drew Jemison Math Science Technology Academy in East Baltimore by late August. "This is going to be much more rewarding than politics," he said this week. Stokes will be director of operations at the school, which is supported by public funds. He also hopes to raise $750,000 from local philanthropic organizations.

Carl Stokes doesn't own a single pair of blue jeans. The one-time clothing store owner who hopes to become the next City Council president relaxes in dress slacks at home. He cuts a relentlessly dapper figure on the campaign trail, sporting suit and tie -- not just in formal debates, but as he waves at traffic in sweltering heat. He ignores advisers who urge him to dress down. "I think it's from school," said Stokes, 53. "I was a parochial school kid. I always wore a white shirt and tie. We always wore dress pants, even in kindergarten.

Mayor Martin O'Malley is expected to officially announce his re-election campaign at 1 p.m. today at the drug treatment center Gaudenzia Baltimore at Park Heights, and the anticipation is spurring speculation on how the next 11 weeks will unfold. The campaign's tone this year should prove vastly more subdued then the tempestuous struggle to claim former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's vacated seat in 1999, political experts predict. Four years ago, O'Malley and two other well-known candidates - Carl Stokes and Lawrence A. Bell III - battled for the mayor's seat, causing constant debate among the three.

AT 15 MINUTES before 10 o'clock Tuesday night, the night he all but got himself elected mayor of Baltimore, a soaking-wet Martin O'Malley stepped from a shower and did what every man in his situation wishes to do: He reached protectively for some precinct returns."

AT 15 MINUTES before 10 o'clock Tuesday night, the night he all but got himself elected mayor of Baltimore, a soaking-wet Martin O'Malley stepped from a shower and did what every man in his situation wishes to do: He reached protectively for some precinct returns."

It may take months before Baltimoreans fully grasp how much Tuesday's primary election whirlwind altered the city's political landscape.While Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke was renominated to a third term and is standing taller than before, other fixtures in the city's political life -- Mary Pat Clarke, Julian Lapides, Joseph DiBlasi, Vera Hall and Carl Stokes -- were swept aside.Here are some other measures of the changes:After November, when Republicans go through the motion of holding a general election in this heavily Democratic city, Mr. Schmoke could be the only incumbent remaining on the five-member Board of Estimates.

Browsing the brie torte and sundried tomato capellini at the deli counter of Eddie's of Roland Park, the shoppers of North Baltimore were talking about the mayor's race and revealing their political tastes.As the customers pondered how they would vote on primary election day, many found themselves thinking more about the character of the candidates than their promises -- reasoning that promises can be broken.They seemed to see the virtues of the candidates and the challenges faced by the city as relevant to one another.