Mayoral Race

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has no free shot in her attempt to win election to a post she inherited less than 18 months ago. She faces five challengers in the Democratic primary, including three current officeholders, a one-time chief of staff to Ms. Rawlings-Blake's predecessor and a community activist. They are pressing for changes in how the city handles taxes, public safety, education, economic development and more. City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who, like Ms. Rawlings-Blake, was elevated to his job after Mayor Sheila Dixon resigned last year, is running in a citywide election for the first time.

In case you're wondering, Peter Angelos' involvement in this year's mayoral race didn't begin or end with last week's surprising letter to the editor . A bunch of declared challengers trooped into Angelos' office about two weeks ago. They came in separately, one day after the next, seeking campaign cash, a source tells me. The supplicants were: former city Planning Director Otis Rolley , City Councilman Carl Stokes and former Councilman...

Former city planning director Otis Rolley said he plans to formally file Wednesday as a candidate for mayor. "I know the next five months are going to be the toughest five months of my life, until I get elected, and then they'll all be tough," Rolley said Tuesday at his campaign headquarters in Hampden. Rolley's schedule is packed with community meetings, church visits, small gatherings at homes and fundraisers. He declined to say how much money he has raised, but said he was undaunted by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's substantial fundraising lead.

Baltimore's mayoral campaign of 2011 is finally starting to heat up (at least a little bit).  How do we know? The first negative ad was posted on YouTube today.  With Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the way you lie" playing in the background, the video shows a series of articles that (I suppose) are intended to make the viewer think negatively of current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.  The video shows five articles in all:   • 72,000 Baltimore residents to find themselves in new City Council districts Friday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has exercised all due caution by selectively abstaining from votes on city contracts with Johns Hopkins Health System, where her husband, Kent Blake, has been employed since December. City ethics rules generally bar officials from participating in matters involving a close relative who might benefit financially, and Ms. Rawlings-Blake has voted on a dozen contracts involving the sprawling entity that is Johns Hopkins, but none of them directly involve the branch of health the system her husband works for. Given Mr. Blake's relatively minor role at Hopkins, that standard is more than sufficient to assure the public that the mayor has acted properly.

Baltimore's mayoral race has gotten off to one of the earliest — and priciest — starts in recent history, according to campaign finance filings made public Thursday. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who became mayor last year after Sheila Dixon resigned, has more than $842,000 cash on hand, more than three times her nearest potential opponent and nearly $600,000 more than Dixon had raised by January 2007. State Sen. Catherine Pugh, rumored to be contemplating a run, has $252,000 cash on hand, putting her a distant second in fundraising.

The appearance last week by Bill Cosby at a fundraiser for Baltimore mayoral candidate Otis Rolley III means one thing: We've got a real election on our hands. Mr. Cosby's presence no doubt got people to pay attention to Mr. Rolley, if only to wonder what a man whose endorsements more famously run to Jell-O and Coca-Cola has to say about a former head of the Baltimore Office of Planning. For the record, he said he admires Mr. Rolley's rise from a poor childhood and his willingness to make the tough choices needed to move the city forward.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has coped with a pair of historic blizzards, closed a record budget deficit and overhauled the police and fire pension system since taking office in February. Now, at 40, she is gearing up for her biggest challenge yet: keeping the position she filled when Sheila Dixon resigned earlier this year. With fewer than 10 months to go until Baltimore's primary election, several candidates have already said they will run against Rawlings-Blake, who was elected City Council president by a tidy margin in 2007 and automatically elevated when Dixon's legal problems created a vacancy.

Potential candidates are lining up to fill the Anne Arundel County Council seat left vacant by Josh Cohen after his victory in the Annapolis mayoral race last week. Among the Democrats considering applying to represent Annapolis on the County Council are members of the Annapolis city council, one of Cohen's former challengers in the mayoral race and other government workers and business people, according to political insiders. Annapolis Alderwoman Classie Hoyle, just re-elected to the council, said she's considering applying.

Potential candidates are lining up to fill the Anne Arundel County Council seat left vacant by Josh Cohen after his victory in the Annapolis mayoral race last week. Among the Democrats considering applying to represent Annapolis on the County Council are members of the Annapolis city council, one of Cohen's former challengers in the mayoral race and other government workers and business people, according to political insiders. Annapolis Alderwoman Classie Hoyle, just re-elected to the council, said she's considering applying.