Keiffer

IN BALTIMORE CITY Mayor, councilman endorse each other's bids for re-election Mayor Martin O'Malley and City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. endorsed each other's re-election yesterday, praising each other for a commitment to diversity and equality. During a news conference at Charles and Eager streets in Mount Vernon, O'Malley held Mitchell's 1-year-old son, Jack, while standing beside the councilman's wife, Nicole. "I believe Keiffer Mitchell has been one of the most committed, hard-working council members we've had in several years," O'Malley said.

He stood on a West Baltimore corner, a hulking man looming over a black podium on a corner that like so many in this city was the site of a recent homicide. There was no raucous applause, no flurry of "Mitchell for Mayor" signs, no clutch of supporters circling City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. as he hammered away at crime, the cornerstone of his campaign. "Enough is enough," the mayoral contender boomed into the microphone. The television cameras zoomed in on Mitchell. Alone. By all accounts, Mitchell, a three-term councilman, has run an aggressive campaign in his bid to become the city's 49th mayor.

The Young Elected Officials Network had its national conference in Washington last week, and Del. Keiffer Mitchell, in D.C. on other business, decided to stop by. "I went to try to register at the table and they said the age limit is 35 years old," said Mitchell, who turns 44 in September. "I tried to explain to the lady, 'Hey, I’ve been going to the gym on a daily basis.'" They did let Mitchell in, as sort of an elderly observer. While there, he ran into Sen. Bill Ferguson and City Councilman Bill Cole.

As Maryland lawmakers debated the gay marriage bill, and Del. Luke Clippinger came out to colleagues on the House floor, one of his fellow Baltimore Democrats was moved to tears. "My colleague Luke, I sit right next to him, enduring all these weeks of negativity, for him to finally speak out and say why he's in favor of it, what it means to him, it just got emotional," Del. Keiffer Mitchell told me. There's another reason the gay marriage debate hit home for Mitchell.

NO ONE CAN accuse this Mitchell of sitting down on the job. There he was Tuesday, standing on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Laurens Street. Keiffer Mitchell, one of the City Council's 4th District representatives, stood with the sleeves of his light-blue shirt rolled up slightly above the wrists, chatting with constituents in front of a long desk and about four chairs that served as his makeshift office for a day. An orange sign with black letters that read "4 in the Fourth: Taking back our communities one corner at a time" hung from the table.

Baltimore City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., who has been focusing on addressing violence in his mayoral campaign, held a small news conference yesterday to call for the establishment of gang crime enforcement units in every police district. "We need officers out on streets in communities and in neighborhoods, finding out what's going on with gangs," Mitchell said, standing outside the Eastern District station, "because the gang problem is spreading through our city." Mitchell complained that only the Eastern District has its own anti-gang unit, and it was created by officers and the major there, not by command staff or City Hall.

Three-term Baltimore City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. said yesterday that he is running for mayor and will officially launch his candidacy the day after his chief opponent, Sheila Dixon, is publicly sworn in to the position. The Democratic councilman said in an interview with The Sun that he will formally kick off his campaign for the 2007 election on Jan. 19 - the same week Martin O'Malley becomes governor and Council President Dixon begins to serve out the remainder of his mayoral term.

A state legislator is proposing to abolish the current structure of the Baltimore school system and return its reins to the mayor under legislation due to come before the Maryland General Assembly in January. The bill, pre-filed last week by Del. Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. of the city's 44th District, would designate the mayor as the chief decision-maker of the school system, which would be operated under a mayor-appointed superintendent and the superintendent's Cabinet. The school board's responsibilities would shift from a governing body to an advisory role.

Launching what his campaign says will be the first in a series of television advertisements this summer, City Councilman and mayoral candidate Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. goes on the air today with an early campaign ad focused on what he calls Baltimore's "murder crisis." The 30-second spot, which will air on all four network affiliates, continues to draw attention to what has become the most prominent issue for most of the leading mayoral candidates: the roughly 20 percent increase in the number of homicides this year.

City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. began airing yesterday his second negative ad in this year's mayoral campaign, in response to an ad from Mayor Sheila Dixon. The 15-second television ad is Mitchell's fifth and is the eighth overall in the race. What the ad says: As ominous music plays in the background, large, red letters spell out "DIXON: ATTACKING." A male narrator says, "Sheila Dixon is panicking, attacking Keiffer Mitchell on crime." The screen shows Dixon at a news conference with microphones in front of her. Below her is a smaller image of Dixon's ad, a picture of Mitchell with the text "12 years" and "Keiffer Mitchell talks about crime."