Run For Mayor

Westminster City Council President William F. Haifley said yesterday that he will not run for mayor or any other office in the May 10 election.Mr. Haifley's announcement at City Hall included an ardent attack on Mayor W. Benjamin Brown, who said minutes later that he had filed to run for a second four-year term.Mr. Haifley, an eight-year councilman who had been widely rumored as a possible mayoral candidate, said in prepared remarks, "It would be an improvement in city government if Mayor Brown were out of office."

Mere seconds after setting foot on the bustling sidewalk outside Lexington Market, Frank M. Conaway Sr. is surrounded first by a small group of admirers, quickly followed by hordes of hangers-on howling his name. Like many Baltimoreans who have fallen on hard times, they want something from their politicians. And this crowd doesn't shy away from asking. On a rainy day last week, dozens of people — some of whom said they were living in government-subsidized apartments or were homeless — pleaded with Conaway for jobs.

Despite a possible candidacy by his prominent cousin, Baltimore City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III is piecing together a political machine as he prepares to declare he will run for mayor.Bell, considered one of the favorites in this year's mayoral race, has lined up several members of his campaign team, even though a cloud appears over the campaign while the city awaits a decision about the possible candidacy of NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, whom state leaders in the General Assembly are pushing to run."

You'd think recent indictments in the Bob Ehrlich robocall case would have scared off political dirty tricksters. That doesn't appear to be the case. Near as I can tell, Sun op-ed columnist Marta Mossburg is not running for mayor. Nor is she changing the spelling of her last name from Mossburg to Mossberg.  So what explains the "Marta Mossberg for Mayor" sticker that Sun police reporter extraordinaire Justin Fenton stumbled upon? There's no authority line on the sticker, surprise, surprise.  Mossburg, former editorial page editor of the Baltimore Examiner, is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute and a fellow with the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.  "I have no idea who would print the ' campaign' sticker," Mossburg told me in an email just now. "It made me laugh, and I went over to see it for myself  Tuesday to check to see if it was real.

AFTER A WEEK IN which I talked to everybody who knows something about the political future of Kweisi Mfume and the race for mayor of Baltimore, I can report the following to everyone with the greatest sense of confidence and authority: Nobody knows anything.William Donald Schaefer thought he knew something, but now he thinks he doesn't. Howard P. "Pete" Rawlings has his little corner of hope, and Lawrence Bell has an entire inventory of anxieties, none of which is the same thing as certainty.

Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway said yesterday that he will challenge Mayor Martin O'Malley in the next Democratic primary, making Conaway the first opponent of the mayor's to announce his candidacy. Conaway, 69, a former state delegate who finished third in the 1999 Democratic primary for City Council president, said he is running because O'Malley has not made the city safe enough and because he does not hire enough local African-Americans. "`Believe?' Believe in what?

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.

DID NAACP President Kweisi Mfume encourage those who wanted him to be a mayoral candidate? Or did the public courtship come unsolicited, even unwelcomed?Well, what came first -- the chicken or the egg?Rumors that tied Mfume to a possible mayoral candidacy have been floating in the city for more than a year. But they always were vague, their sources unclear. Then, on Dec. 3, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced that he would not seek a fourth term, and faces and names became attached to the call for Mfume to run. A short time later, Del. Howard "Pete" Rawlings and his band of Mfume supporters formed a Draft Mfume Committee.

Frank M. Conaway Sr., one of the oldest hands in Baltimore politics, announced officially yesterday that he will run for mayor, harshly criticizing the policies of Mayor Sheila Dixon and outlining his plan to remedy what he called Baltimore's crime-rate "crisis." At his announcement at War Memorial Plaza, the three-term clerk of Baltimore's Circuit Court argued that Dixon has lost control of the city, which he described as a lawless war zone. Bowing out Comptroller Joan M. Pratt decides not to run for mayor.

Anthrax spore, stay away from my door. They are protecting the wrong facilities in the harbor. Better to save Beth Steel. The Taliban will soon be replaced by the same people using a different name. Hizzoner is getting too big for Baltimore and will run for mayor of Rockville. The Mariners and Yankees got through. Some things are right with the world.

State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh is planning to join a crowded field of Baltimore mayoral candidates. Pugh, a West Baltimore Democrat, said Thursday that she will officially announce her candidacy Monday afternoon at a West North Avenue community center. "It is now time to begin a broader conversation about Baltimore's young people, neighborhoods and opportunities to push our city forward," Pugh said in a statement. Pugh will challenge Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in the Democratic primary in September.

Scott Donahoo, a former car salesman known for his boisterous television commercials, told a local radio station that he is giving "serious consideration" to a run for mayor next year, joining an already crowded field of potential candidates. Scott Donahoo told Jimmy Mathis of WBAL radio that as mayor, he would drastically cut property taxes and increase the city's police presence. "We have lost a tremendous amount of the police department due to the failed policies of previous administrations and current administration," Donahoo said during the interview.

Samuel E. Shropshire was visiting a museum in Gambia, one of Annapolis' sister cities, when he saw a picture of child slaves being auctioned at Annapolis City Dock. "When I saw that, I realized that the city condoned nearly 100 years of slavery," Shropshire said, recalling the experience that prompted him to urge fellow aldermen on the Annapolis City Council to issue an apology for participating in slavery. Shropshire's life journey has taken him from the deep South to a Soviet jail to founding a nonprofit to help people living with HIV and AIDS.

Annapolis Alderman Richard E. Israel is set to introduce to the city council tomorrow night legislation that would severely limit the power of the mayor to oversee city government and municipal services. The authority to hire, fire and set salaries for department heads would shift from the mayor to the city administrator, who currently oversees the day-to-day management of the departments in conjunction with the mayor. The change would restrict the mayor's role to policymaking while expanding the role of the city administrator, who is hired by the mayor.

Nicole V. Burlew is a candidate for mayor in Aberdeen who never voted in a city election - she wasn't old enough. But the soft-spoken 19-year-old college student has taken up the call to public service, mounting a campaign to lead the Harford County city of 15,000 that faces budget troubles and looming growth because of the national military base realignment.

Frank M. Conaway Sr., one of the oldest hands in Baltimore politics, announced officially yesterday that he will run for mayor, harshly criticizing the policies of Mayor Sheila Dixon and outlining his plan to remedy what he called Baltimore's crime-rate "crisis." At his announcement at War Memorial Plaza, the three-term clerk of Baltimore's Circuit Court argued that Dixon has lost control of the city, which he described as a lawless war zone. Bowing out Comptroller Joan M. Pratt decides not to run for mayor.

Legislators are weighing whether actual residents of Baltimore should be eligible to run for mayor.The new geography: Brazil is the part of Asia nearest Wall Street.A reputable porno king like Flynt has no good business in the mud with Starr and Hyde.The best way to keep a casino out of Inner Harbor East would be to discover bog turtles there.

A second Westminster Common Council member has filed to run for mayor. Councilman Kevin E. Dayhoff filed his intent to run yesterday, joining Councilwoman Suzanne P. Albert, who filed last month. Dayhoff, 47, has served on the council since 1999 and has served on city, county and state boards for 20 years. In June, he was elected to the board of directors of Maryland Municipal League. A landscaper, artist and writer, Dayhoff is a senior at Western Maryland College majoring in public policy administration and analysis.

Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr. is wondering whether his invitation to attend BUILD's mayoral forum Sunday got lost in the mail. A. Robert Kaufman, the feisty Trotskyist who has run for just about everything in this town, is wondering the same thing. Conaway and Kaufman are candidates for mayor, but apparently not considered worthy enough by the folks at BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) to be included in a forum of mayoral candidates. Andrey Bundley, who had the guts to run against then-Mayor Martin O'Malley in 2003, was at BUILD's forum.

With pundits increasingly convinced he's not in the race, Kweisi Mfume is still hedging his bets publicly about whether he will run for mayor of Baltimore in this year's election - adding to lingering speculation about his intentions as the deadline for his decision approaches. After attending a City Hall event yesterday with Mayor Sheila Dixon and another potential mayoral candidate, Comptroller Joan M. Pratt - a symbolic gesture for all three leaders - Mfume said he is not planning to run "at this point" but would not rule out changing his mind this summer.