Mayoral Race

IT'S TIME to say sober things about the mayoral race and what has passed for public discussion thereof. First, we're supposed to have a race. You know, where the candidates declare for office and say why they are running.Instead, there are shadow mayoral campaigns by the front-runners -- City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III and his cousin, Kweisi Mfume, with quiet, serious campaigning by former City Council member Carl Stokes and a few other wannabes.The ugliest part is the rampant speculation and outright pandering to get Mr. Mfume to step in and take all the marbles.

It was a beautiful day in the city of Baltimore, and the Ravens weren't on TV, so we can't blame weather or football. But there are a bunch of other explanations for the low-and-slow voter turnout in the 2011 city primary, and here are 12 of them: 1.This was the most overrated mayoral race in memory. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had some attractive opponents, and one of them had Bill Cosby on his side. Plus, they all talked about something that should have excited voters - cutting property taxes.

A councilman and retired banker with 30 years of management experience jumpstarted Westminster's next mayoral race by filing his intent to run yesterday. Thomas K. Ferguson, 62, a first-time candidate for mayor of the county seat, is the first to file for the position. The filing deadline is in April. The election is May 9. Appointed to the Common Council in June 2001 when then-Councilman Kevin E. Dayhoff won the city's mayoral race, Ferguson ran for a four-year council seat last year and reclaimed his spot on the five-member panel.

This morning, the Baltimore City Department of Transportation sought to put a good face on the havoc the Baltimore Grand Prix is playing on downtown traffic when it used the word "slight" four times in a three-sentence news release to describe the delays motorists might experience. But the backups on I-395 the city warned about (plus those on the Jones Falls Expressway, Russell Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and other routes the city didn't mention) are just the beginning.

Annapolitans can count themselves lucky. After a snooze of a primary, they are about to be treated to a general election featuring a fascinating mayoral race with three candidates who embody clear choices about city issues.To make matters even better, they already know a lot about each of the three and seem eager for the debates and discourse to begin so they can know more. This is one election where voters won't just be flipping a coin and pulling a lever. Most of them are going into this campaign with an open mind, waiting to hear what the candidates have to say and watch how they behave.

Dennis M. Callahan formally announced his candidacy for mayor of Annapolis yesterday at Compromise and Newman streets, across from the Fleet Reserve Club.This is Callahan's fourth bid for the job that he held from 1985 to 1989.Focusing on a theme of neighborhoods, the Democratic candidate spoke of issues he said were important to his campaign such as annexation along the Forest Drive corridor, settling tax fights amicably with Anne Arundel County and lowering the crime rate in the city.Callahan, 55, soundly beaten at the polls by Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins in 1989 and 1993, was a tough mayor with many critics.

The Baltimore mayoral race in the general election will be a re-run of 1987.Absentee ballots counted Saturday made Samuel Culotta the Republican nominee again.He faces incumbent Democrat Kurt L. Schmoke, who won the general election easily four years ago.The absentee count did not change the results of any other primary race in either party.Culotta, 67, a lawyer, has been the GOP nominee for mayor in every election since 1975.However, in Thursday's primary, he received stiff competition from Bruce Price and Joseph Scalia.

Evidence that the mayoral race is tightening continued to emerge yesterday, as a second opinion poll showed that mayoral challenger Mary Pat Clarke has pulled to within six percentage points of incumbent Kurt L. Schmoke.The poll released yesterday by WBAL-TV Channel 11 showed Mr. Schmoke ahead 51 percent to 45 percent of the voters questioned with 5 percent undecided.That buttressed the results of a poll conducted last week of 435 likely Democratic primary voters by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research for The Sun and WMAR-TV Channel 2 that showed Mrs. Clarke has pulled within six percentage points of Mr. Schmoke with 20 percent of the voters undecided.

Maxine C. Wooleyhand entered the race for mayor to give Sykesville's voters a choice, she said.Last night, they chose her opponent, Kenneth W. Clark, by a margin of 177-130.Mr. Clark, the Town Council president, will succeed Mayor Lloyd R. Helt Jr., whose impending move to Westminster makes him ineligible for municipal office in Sykesville. Mayor Helt served three four-year terms.The mayoral race was the only contest in town, as three nominees ran unopposed for the three available council seats.

All 27 Baltimore mayoral candidates remained in the Sept. 14 primary race yesterday, despite the arrest Thursday night of one and the acknowledgment of a second this week that he falsely claimed a college degree.Mayoral candidate Carl Stokes held a news conference at 3: 30 p.m. yesterday, igniting speculation that the 49-year-old former East Baltimore city councilman and school board member would drop out of the race before yesterday's 5 p.m. deadline.Earlier in the week, Stokes acknowledged that statements on campaign literature that he graduated from Loyola College were untrue.

Last Tuesday, Baltimore had its first live on-air mayoral debate among all the candidates, including incumbent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. WMAR (Channel 2), Baltimore's ABC affiliate, didn't cover the event at all. WBAL (Channel 11), the city's NBC affiliate and one of the area's most powerful news stations, covered it, but all week had video of a different debate (one that didn't include Rawlings-Blake) mislabeled on its website as being Tuesday's mayoral forum. Less than one month out from the Sept.

Baltimore's only televised debate among incumbent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and all her challengers will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Aug. 29 and be hosted by Maryland Public Television at its Owings Mills Studio, according to a campaign spokeswoman for the mayor and a news executive at WBFF (Channel 45), which has agreed to stream the debate online and carry it on tape delay. MPT had not yet confirmed the details, but a spokesman for the public brodacsting outlet said they would have an announcement later today.

The founder of the Baltimore Grand Prix has filed a $750,000 claim against the current organizers of the event, joining another early investor who claims he has yet to be paid. Steven C. Wehner says Baltimore Racing Development LLC, the company that he created in his mother's Rodgers Forge basement five years ago, failed to make payments totaling $575,000 owed to him over five years in exchange for his 10.2 percent stake in the company. Wehner is also seeking attorney's fees and interest.

We're residents of Baltimore City who happen to be loyal members of two different political parties. We've both spent a lot of time participating in politics and public policy matters from different perches. Despite our different perspectives, we're concerned that the 2011 Baltimore City election cycle is not generating the excitement or attention it should. It certainly isn't for a lack of compelling or experienced candidates. This year's crop of mayoral choices include an incumbent seeking election in her own right, a former city official running on new ideas, a state senator and a City Council veteran.

On the campaign trail, mayoral candidate Frank Conaway can often be heard passionately criticizing his opponents. Today, the Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk does it in rhyme. Conaway, 77, posted a rap on his campaign website where he takes a few cutting digs at the mayor, and candidates Otis Rolley, Catherine Pugh and Joseph "Jody" Landers. On the minute-long rap, he opens with a "I'm Frank Conaway and I approve this message," and then asks some of his opponents, "How you gonna take advice from the gift card bandit?"

Last week, when Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was a guest on my radio show, at least four listeners asked questions that seemed to suggest they had one foot out of the door already. "I have lived in the city for nearly 10 years," said an email from a listener named Tom in Station North. "In that time we have had two very big Baltimore boosters as mayor (Martin O'Malley and Sheila Dixon), who generated excitement and investment and made me proud to say I live in Baltimore. Unfortunately, that 'excitement' seems to have ended.

With four weeks to go in the city's turbulent mayoral primary, City Councilman Martin O'Malley gained the endorsement yesterday of state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer.A former governor and mayor, Schaefer stood near the entrance of the West Baltimore elementary school he attended and called O'Malley the best candidate at a news conference."I've never seen so much energy," Schaefer said of O'Malley, a 36-year-old defense attorney and former prosecutor. "Martin seems to understand the issues.

Today's mayoral election in Annapolis may hinge on how many voters go to the polls.That's the analysis of supporters of the three candidates, Democratic incumbent Alfred A. Hopkins, Republican Laurance Vincent and independent Dennis M. Callahan.All three candidates promise to have volunteers on the streets encouraging registered voters to cast ballots and providing transportation to those who need it."In the end, it will come down to who is the most organized and gets their people to polls," said a Hopkins campaign worker.

When City Councilman Carl Stokes made an 11th-hour decision to pull out of the mayor's race, he sought the guidance of family members, supporters — and Sheila Dixon. Stokes, who said last week that he was dropping out of the Democratic primary to improve the odds that incumbent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake would be defeated, chatted at length with the former mayor before making his decision. While Dixon is barred from running for office this year as part of the plea deal to settle charges of theft and perjury, her influence pervades the mayoral contest.