After the initial round of ballot tallying last week, 36-year-old City Council President Brandon Scott rallied as mail-in votes were counted over the past several days—pulling out a close victory over former Mayor Sheila Dixon in the Democratic primary for mayor, according to results posted Tuesday night.

In a crowded field with 24 candidates receiving votes, Scott won 29.4 percent of the tally. Dixon claimed 27.7 percent of the ballots cast—a margin of 2,358 votes. The final count remains unofficial and is not expected to be certified before Friday. Roughly 2,000 ballots remain outstanding.

Dixon, 66, also a former city council president, became Baltimore’s first female mayor in 2007 after Martin O’Malley was sworn in as governor. She resigned as part of a plea deal after being charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including theft, perjury, and misconduct in office.

Scott will face Republican Shannon Wright, a nonprofit executive, in this fall’s general election. With a nearly 10-1 Democratic to Republican Party registration advantage in the city, Scott’s victory is all but assured in November.

“Tonight, we celebrate a hard-fought victory for the future of Baltimore,” Scott said in a statement. “From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my family, my team, our volunteers, those who voted for a new way forward for Baltimore, and everyone who believes change is not just possible, but long overdue. Our city stands at a crossroads. Baltimore will only move forward as a city united, not divided. It will take all of us to build a city that is safe, equitable, and accountable. As a son of Baltimore, I could not be more honored to lead our great city in this critical moment and carry the work forward with you.”

Here are five things to know about Scott:

The City Council Elected Him as President Following Catherine Pugh’s Resignation

The city council elected Scott its president after Bernard C. “Jack” Young ascended to the mayor’s office following former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation in the wake of the Healthy Holly children’s book scandal. Scott prevailed after a weekend-long, behind-closed-doors fight with Young’s chosen successor—Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton. Initially, it appeared that neither Scott nor Middleton had the votes to prevail, but when the scales tipped in Scott’s favor, council members ultimately supported him 14-0.

He Was One of the Youngest Candidates Elected to Citywide Office

A subject in 2018’s well-received documentary Charm City, Scott was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to citywide office at 27. After growing up in Park Heights, he graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, where he ran track and cross country, and then studied political science at St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. He got his start in politics as a liaison in the office of then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who later became mayor. Scott will be significantly younger than the age of the average U.S. mayor—which is 56, according to a recent study. But the ambitious Scott would be the same age as Martin O’Malley when O’Malley ran for mayor and with several more years of elected experience. He lives in the city’s Frankford Neighborhood.

He Has a Diverse Coalition of Support

In mid-May, a Baltimore Sun, WYPR, and the University of Baltimore poll showed Scott was the only major mayoral candidate with near equal support among both black (16 percent) and white (17 percent) voters. Scott, who also had a diverse coalition of support, led among voters younger than 35 and also younger than 50. His late voting surge in ballots arriving in the final days before the June 2 postmark deadline indicate that he continued to win support as he marched with protestors in the city following the death of George Floyd. “I can talk young, old; rich, poor; white, black; gay, straight; trap house, board room,” Scott told the Baltimore Fishbowl following that poll. “No one else can do that in this race. No one else has that flexibility in this race.”

He Supports Defunding the Police

Scott was widely viewed as the most progressive of the top-tier candidates in the race. He has pushed for reforms that would curtail some of the power of inherit in Baltimore’s strong mayor even as he ran for the office. As the chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee from 2016 until he became city council president, Scott advocated a holistic approach to crime reduction and for Baltimore police department reform. He co-founded the anti-violence group 300 Men March and is close to Ceasefire co-founder Erricka Bridgeford. “Baltimore must re-allocate its budget away from the current dependence on the police department,” Scott tweeted this week. “We must diversify our investments into agencies that focus on proactively developing our young people and communities.”

He Passed Groundbreaking Legislation Advocating for Racial Equity

Scott previously served as a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees. In 2018, he introduced and passed groundbreaking legislation that created an equity assessment program in Baltimore that requires all city agency decisions—and their operating budgets, capital budgets, and proposed legislation—to be weighed through an equity lens.

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott passed former mayor Sheila Dixon by ever-so-slightly a margin Sunday night as mail-in votes continued to be counted over the weekend in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.

Scott, who had been trailing Dixon since polls closed last Tuesday, now leads by 388 votes, according to the latest results posted by the State’s Board of Elections late Sunday. In a crowded field with 23 candidates garnering votes, Scott’s tally has moved up to 28.7 percent of the votes with Dixon’s slipping support now at 28.4 percent.

Stefanie Mavronis, director of communication in the city council president’s office, told Baltimore Sunday evening that an estimated 15,000-20,000 votes still remain uncounted. She said the hope is that mail-in vote counting will be completed by end of day Tuesday.

The 36-year-old Scott, a Park Heights native, received the endorsement of the Baltimore Sun’s editorial board. A presence at protests and marches throughout the city since the death of unarmed George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, Scott continues to benefit from an upsurge in support among those casting later ballots.

Dixon, who pled guilty to embezzlement and was forced to resign from the mayor’s office amid a cloud of corruption dating back to her term as city council president, led by a slim margin in several polls leading up to the election.

A significantly smaller number of in-person polling places were open last Tuesday as a precaution against COVID-19.

City mail ballots were required to be postmarked by June 2 or placed in local ballot drop boxes by 8 p.m. on that date. The state had already postponed its April 28 primary to June 2 as part of a series of actions to protect residents from the coronavirus pandemic. State Board of Elections staff have also been putting the paper mail-in ballots in “quarantine” for 24 hours as a precaution against the virus.

U.S. Treasury Department official Mary Miller, who has never held elected office, currently sits in third place, with 15.5 percent of the vote. Former state Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah is in fourth at 11.4 percent. Incumbent Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has pulled just 6.4 percent of the tally, and former police spokesman T.J. Smith has 5.9 percent of the vote.

In the closely watched Democratic primary race for city comptroller, widely respected City Councilman Bill Henry continues to grow his lead over two-decade-plus incumbent Joan Pratt. He now leads 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent, and by nearly 10,000 votes. Pratt has been under fire for her longstanding personal, political, and business relationship with former Mayor Catherine Pugh.

The election of Scott and Henry over Dixon and Pratt would mark a generational change in the city’s leadership, just as the overhaul of the city council did in 2016 after the first election since the death of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody.

In another key race for city council president, Nick Mosby, a former city council member and current state delegate, is assured of winning. Mosby—whose wife, Marilyn Mosby, is the state’s attorney for Baltimore City—has 40.7 percent of the vote so far. Current city council member Shannon Sneed has 28.6 percent of the vote. Former city council member Carl Stokes has 21.6 percent of the tally.

Meanwhile, with Young, Scott, and Henry leaving the city council in pursuit of higher office, as well as the retirements of Mary Pat Clarke and Ed Reisinger, the city council will again undergo another transformation.

Among the new members expected to take office pending the primary certification this week and November’s general election are Danielle McCray, who initially filled Young’s seat when he rose to mayor after Catherine Pugh’s resignation, in the 2nd District; James Torrence in the 7th District; Phylicia Porter in the 10th District; Antonio Glover in the 13th District; and Odette Ramos in the 14th District.

Among current city council members leading by comfortable margins are Zeke Cohen in the 1st District; Ryan Dorsey in the 3rd District; Isaac Schleifer in the 5th District; Sharon Green Middleton in the 6th District; Kristerfer Burnett in the 8th District; John Bullock in the 9th District; Eric Costello in the 11th District; and Robert Stokes Jr. in the 12th District.

The Baltimore City Council delivered a short, but strongly worded letter to Mayor Catherine Pugh early Monday morning, urging her resignation.

In a response just before noon Monday, Pugh vowed to return to office. In an emailed statement from spokesman James Bentley II, her office said the Mayor “fully intends to resume the duties of her office and continuing her work on behalf of the people and the City of Baltimore” once she has fully regained her health following a bout of pneumonia.

Signed by the entire membership of the City Council and delivered to the Office of the Mayor, as well as City Council President and Ex-Officio Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, City Solicitor Andre M. Davis, and Bruce Williams, the mayor’s chief of staff, the two-sentence letter urges the mayor “to tender your resignation, effective immediately.”

The call for Pugh’s immediate resignation comes as the first-term mayor remains embroiled in a children’s book scandal that is now under investigation by the state prosecutor. In a story first broken by The Baltimore Sun, Pugh received $500,000 from the University of Maryland Medical Center while she sat on UMMS board for 100,000 copies of her self-published Healthy Holly book series. In addition, The Sun has reported, Pugh received another $300,000 allegedly for copies of her book by companies and organizations with business before the City.

Most of the books, the majority of which were said to have been donated to the Baltimore City Public School System, have yet to be located. Currently, Pugh remains on an official leave absence while recovering from pneumonia. City Council President Young has been assuming the official duties of the mayor in her stead.

“It is beyond thinkable that she should ever return to a role in government,” said 3rd District Councilman Ryan Dorsey in a Facebook post while sharing the council’s letter to the Mayor. “If she has any ability whatsoever to put the welfare of the more than 600,000 residents of Baltimore City ahead of her own self-interest, she will not delay in offering her full resignation.”

‪First District City Councilman Zeke Cohen, who along with Dorsey was among the first elected officials to call for Pugh’s resignation last week, said in a post that in addition to “this unprecedented step,” the City Council “is discussing several structural reforms to our city’s code and charter.”

That said, Cohen told Baltimore magazine, with the General Assembly coming to a close Monday there is no time to make a change to the city code and charter this session that would enable the City Council to remove the mayor from office.

As the City Council and Baltimore residents learned during the criminal investigation of former Mayor Sheila Dixon, removing even a mayor convicted of a crime might not be legally possible. In 2010, Dixon resigned as part of a corruption plea deal after she pled guilty to perjury and embezzlement. As part of that deal, Dixon got to keep her $83,000 pension.

Prior to serving as mayor, Pugh served two terms on the City Council and 10 years in the state senate. The book saga has begun receiving national attention in recent days, including a skewering take from HBO’s John Oliver. Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada recently “reviewed” Pugh’s Healthy Holly: Exercising Is Fun!

On Friday, the fundraising consulting arm of Pugh’s 2020 reelection organization, TruBlu Politics, cut ties with the mayor over the ongoing book scandal. “In light of recent events, we decided to end the relationship with Mayor Pugh,” David Goodman, a TruBlu partner told Baltimore. TruBlu, which has worked with a roster of politicians in Maryland and beyond, signed on to Pugh’s election campaign in October 2017.

Also on Friday, Jim Smith, a top Pugh advisor and former Baltimore County executive and former judge, who was cited for an illegal loan to Pugh’s 2016 campaign, resigned from his cabinet post as chief of strategic alliances.

Another source close to the Pugh campaign and familiar with TruBlu Politics told Baltimore that the mayor has decided to suspend her 2020 re-election bid even as she plans to fill out her current term. No formal announcement has yet been made, however, regarding her reelection effort.

According to a January filing with the Maryland State Board of Elections, Pugh’s re-election committee has $968,790 in cash reserves. With more recent fundraising events that have yet to be reported, the number could be above $1 million at the moment. In an off-election year, she will not be required to file another financial report until next year.

Campaign chairman Steve Sibel, a partner with Caves Valley Partners, a Baltimore real estate development company, would not comment when reached Friday and asked if the Pugh had decided to suspend her 2020 campaign.

If Pugh does decide not to run for re-election, she will have several options regarding the money in her campaign coffers. She can return funds to donors. She can also donate the funds to charity, as the widow and sons of former Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz did after he died unexpectedly during his bid for governor.

Pugh may also reimburse herself for any personal loans she gave her campaign. She may also pass funds to other politicians, although who would accept that kind of financial gift from the mayor while she remains under investigation isn’t clear.

“You saw how fast Johnny O [Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski] returned the campaign contribution he’d received once the news broke,” Goucher College political science professor Mileah Kromer notes. “My guess is very few politicians will touch it. It’s tainted money.”

Following revelations of a $500,000 children’s book deal with the University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Monday morning that she is resigning her seat as a University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) board member.

In a statement, Pugh said it “has been an honor to have been associated with the important work of the UMMS Board, but the fact is, I have many other pressing concerns that require my full attention, energy, and efforts.”

Pugh also praised the work of the University of Maryland Medical System. She did not mention her controversial children’s book deal, which has prompted outrage from Baltimore voters and rebuke from Maryland lawmakers in the General Assembly. In recent years, the UMMS system upon whose board she has sat for 18 years, approved the purchase of 100,000 copies of her Healthy Holly children’s book.

Since Sun reporter Luke Broadwater broke the story last week that Pugh and eight other members of the University of Maryland Medical System Board of Directors had business deals with the hospital network, the mayor has been forced to amend seven years of financial disclosure forms with the state ethics commission. State Sen. Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore City Democrat, has called on Pugh to return the money she’s received back to medical system.

Speaker of the House Mike Busch, a Democrat like Pugh, also sits on the UMMS board and said that the board was not aware of the private deals others entered into the with hospital system. “Candidly, I was shocked,” Busch told The Sun, regarding the contracts. “I’m outraged the University of Maryland Medical board had individuals on it who were greasing their whole palms by getting contracts with the medical [system]. It was never, ever brought up in a meeting that there were these contracts.”

Legislation introduced by Baltimore City state Sen. Jill Carter, a Democrat, would make it illegal for board members to profit from contracts with the hospitals they govern. Carter told The Sun her bill intends to bring “renewed commitment” to the “best practices of public and private service to the University of Maryland Medical System.” She added it also would prohibit members from “intentionally using the prestige of office or public position for that member’s or another’s private gain.”

The two University of Maryland Medical System board members with the largest financial relationships with hospital network, according to The Sun, are M&T Bank executive August Chiasera, who reported $7.4 million in revenue for the bank from UMMS contracts, and former state Sen. Francis X. Kelley. Kelley’s insurance company reported $4.4 million in revenue from UMMS revenue over the past two years.

Meanwhile, Maryland legislators from both parties are seeking an audit of the University of Maryland Medical System. Gov. Larry Hogan said in a statement that he planned join Senate President Mike Miller and Busch in demanding answers from the UMMS leadership regarding their financial arrangements with the hospital network.

“Like many Marylanders, I have been a patient in the medical system, and I have great affection and respect for the doctors and nurses who serve there,” Hogan said. “That’s why it is so disconcerting to hear that several members of the system’s board have significant financial dealings with these hospitals. These transactions for personal profit damage the public trust. It is not just unseemly, it is appalling, and I have called for an immediate and full review.”

In a statement emailed to Baltimore magazine, Pugh defended the quality of her children’s books, saying they have been featured at the Baltimore Book Festival and Children’s Book Festival in Philadelphia, her deal with the UMMS board, and disclosures. She noted that the University of Maryland Medical System, several years ago, bought and then donated some 20,000 of her children’s books to Baltimore City school children through her company, Healthy Holly LLC.

Anne Fullerton, spokeswoman for the Baltimore City Public School System, confirmed a donation of Pugh’s children’s books from the University of Maryland Medical System, but was unable to track down the exact number or year they had been given. Fullerton also told Baltimore that the donation had not been sought by the school system, nor were the books used as part of any curriculum.

According to Pugh’s statement, her books cost $4 each to print and ship, and that, by charging $5 per book, she earned $1 of profit on each purchase by the UMMS board, which ultimately ordered 100,000 copies between 2011 and 2018.

“I have fully conformed with all disclosure requirements as a board member of the University of Maryland Medical System,” said Pugh. “If it is the decision of the General Assembly to change those requirements, I will, of course, comply with any and all new regulations. In the meantime, I hope that my books have been inspiring and instructive to our young people who need and deserve every indication that we care for them and their future.”

University of Maryland media relations director Michael Schwartzberg emailed the following statement to Baltimore:

“UMMS is in compliance with all IRS filing requirements and has properly disclosed each transaction as required in statute; the threshold for reporting on Form 990 is business transactions that exceed $100,000 per year. There are no contracts for the purchase of the Healthy Holly books, which is a sole-source purchase given the uniqueness of the book.

According to our financial records, the Medical System has purchased 100,000 books since 2011 at a total cost of $500,000. The Medical System strongly believes in and supports promoting healthy lifestyles for Baltimore’s schoolchildren.”

As reported previously by the Baltimore Brew, Pugh’s financial and political ties to the University of Maryland Medical System go beyond books—three UMMS directors loaned Pugh $200,000 in the run-up to the April 2016 Democratic primary. The infusion of funds allowed Pugh’s “campaign to offer free meals, transportation to early polling sites and money—what opponents decried as ‘walk-around” money’—to precinct workers who brought voters to the polls,” according to the Brew.

Pugh won a narrow victory because of her early-voting margin over former Mayor Sheila Dixon. Pugh legislative aide Gary Brown was found guilty of two counts of making illegal campaign donations in the 2016 campaign.

In Town of the Big House, a new five-part podcast series hosted by WYPR, local documentary producer Richard Yeagley embeds with an unknown Virginia real estate developer named Kahan Dhillon, who seemingly arrived out of nowhere in Baltimore in 2016, proposing a massive $10 billion citywide development plan.

Dhillon’s pitch to the city, which he dubbed “The Baltimore Renaissance,” earned him interviews and headlines from much of the local media—including WBAL, The Baltimore Sun, The Baltimore Business Journal, as well as WYPR. He claimed personal and private investment commitments of $200 million for the effort and garnered meetings with numerous community leaders and local officials, including City Council President Jack Young, former Mayor Sheila Dixon, and William Cole, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corp. (Young even sent out an email introducing Dhillon to his fellow council members.)

City Councilman John Bullock eventually invited Dhillon—founder of a small Alexandria, Virginia, real estate company—to air his plan at a council hearing in July 2017, which is where everything kind of fell apart.

It all sounded too vague, not to mention too good to be true, to a couple of council members—especially when Dhillon said he was seeking $3.5 million in planning fees to launch his project. In particular, Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer and Eric Costello questioned the seriousness and real-world clout behind Dhillon’s thin initiative. “The Baltimore Renaissance” plan basically died on the spot, although Dhillon has remained on the periphery of city politics and community activism.

In Town of the Big House, Yeagley, who spent 18 months tracking Dhillon as he promoted his project, raises the specter that the would-be developer was, at least initially, part of a Baltimore-based political corruption investigation by the FBI. “That’s my working theory,” he told Baltimore magazine. Specifically, Yeagley tries to connect the timeline of Dhillon’s early efforts with the timeline of the FBI investigation into former state Sen. Nathaniel Oaks. In January of 2017, six months before Dhillon’s formal pitch to the City Council, Oaks confessed to the FBI that he had accepted payments from an informant posing as an out-of-town developer. Ultimately, Yeagley posits—albeit without definitive evidence—Dhillon just ran with the project after the FBI was forced to end their investigation.

According to the FBI, “as a result of Oaks’ deliberate and intentional conduct in tipping off” another political target of their investigation, their covert investigation into that politician, and “possibly other politicians” was no longer viable.

The podcast doesn’t provide any answers to the basic questions it raises and certainly does not claim any criminal wrongdoing by Dhillon. But it is a compelling recount of a strange saga, and a revealing look behind-the-scenes at Baltimore politics and the outsized role developers play in shaping the city.

It is also a tale of a city desperate for big change and susceptible to big promises.

Responding by email, Dhillon defended his integrity and said of series: “The podcast simply put is full of false commentary, innuendos and alternative facts.” He also sent a link to an audio clip put together by a supporter than does not address the fundamental issues raised in Town of the Big House, but disparages Yeagley’s purpose and character.

We suggest you check the podcast, it’s a fun and compelling listen, do some further research if you wish, and decide for yourself what it all means.

Pugh bested Republican Alan Walden and Green Party candidate Joshua Harris, who received 9 percent and 10 percent of the vote, respectively. Former mayor Sheila Dixon also mounted a challenge as a write-in candidate after narrowly losing the April democratic primary to Pugh and received 23 percent of the vote.

“To all of my opponents out there . . . there’s room under this tent for all of us,” Pugh said. “So let’s work together. Let’s move our city forward, not backward. Let’s become more inclusive, more diverse. Let’s create businesses, expand business, and create opportunity. Let’s get people working in Baltimore. I look forward to working for all of you.”

Overall, turnout was up from the last mayoral election, in 2011, when Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was elected to her first full term, reaping 84 percent of 45,000 votes cast. (Rawlings-Blake assumed the mayor’s seat in 2010 after Dixon was forced to resign amidst a scandal in which she was found to have misappropriated gift cards meant for the needy.) After that election, the city moved mayoral elections to coincide with the presidential election cycle—and Pugh’s margin of victory surely benefitted from an engaged electorate. Many polling places throughout the city reported long lines, several even experienced technical problems, and many residents were still waiting to vote until 9 p.m. tonight.

Though Pugh’s victory is not surprising in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to 1, some wondered about the strength of her winning coalition, especially after her slim margin of victory in the April primary. But today’s results indicate widespread, if not necessarily enthusiastic, support.

Also in attendance at the Radisson Hotel was Locust Point resident Sophia Silbergeld, who supported Pugh in both the primary and general elections.

“She has had a ton of experience,” Silbergeld said. “She has the city’s best interest at heart. She said this is the job she has always dreamed of and that’s the kind of mayor we want to have.”

In Northeast Baltimore, restaurateur Shawn Lagergren cast his ballot for Pugh. Though he supported Pugh in the primary, he also said his preference was solidified by a dearth of other viable candidates.

“I wasn’t going to vote for Sheila Dixon,” he explained. “It just didn’t look good for her with the scandals that had happened prior to this. I don’t think she should be back in.”

Cassandra Bridgeforth of Lauraville was even more frustrated with the options.

“I voted for Catherine Pugh. I hated it,” she said. “They gave me choices of the same old crap, or the same old crap, or the same old crap. At least show me new crap. [But] the other [candidates] just didn’t look like they had the power to be it. So I just held my nose and voted for Pugh.”

Pugh, a resident of Ashburton, is a former journalist, talk show host, and dean and director of Strayer Business College. She earned a BS and MBA from Morgan State University and runs CEPugh and Company, a marketing and public relations firm. She also co-owns a consignment shop in Pigtown called 2 Chic Boutique. Look for more on Pugh in the January issue of Baltimore magazine, on newsstands December 21.

If elected, Pugh has vowed to strengthen penalties for possession of a loaded handgun; enhance crime prevention programs like Citizens on Patrols, Neighborhood Watch, and Safe Streets; and establish an Office of Returning Citizens to help ex-offenders re-enter society.

She also has voiced support for increased funding for after-school and youth job programs, a return of Baltimore’s public school system to city control, and firing controversial Baltimore City Housing Chief Paul Graziano.

In addition to the mayor’s race, all 15 seats on the City Council were on the ballot this year. Many longtime incumbents chose not to seek reelection, providing opportunities for new faces on the council, which usually sees very limited turnover. Below is a list of all official entrants in City Council races. Bold type denotes the winner and an asterisk indicates a new council member.

President

Sharon Black – Unaffiliated

Susan Gaztanaga – Libertarian

Connor Meek – Green

Shannon Wright – Republican

Bernard C. “Jack” Young – Democrat (incumbent)

District 1

Zeke Cohen – Democrat*

Matthew McDaniel – Republican

District 2

Brandon M. Scott – Democrat (incumbent)

Gregory Yarberough – Republican

District 3

Ryan Dorsey – Democrat*

G. Andreas “Spilly” Spiliadis – Green

District 4

William “Sam” Broaddus III – Republican

Bill Henry – Democrat (incumbent)

District 5

Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer – Democrat *

District 6

Sharon Green Middleton – Democrat (incumbent)

Richard Thomas White Jr. – Green

District 7

Leon F. Pinkett III – Democrat*

Tamara Purnell – Republican

Nnamdi Scott – unaffiliated

District 8

Joseph Brown Jr. – Republican

Kristerfer Burnett – Democrat*

District 9

John T. Bullock – Democrat*

Kenneth Earl Ebron Jr. – Republican

Jamie Latear Frierson – Green

District 10

Christine Digman – Republican

Amanda E. Maminski – Green

Edward L. Reisinger – Democrat (incumbent)

District 11

Eric Costello – Democrat (incumbent)

District 12

Frank W. Richardson – Unaffiliated

Ian Schlakman – Green

Dan Sparaco – Unaffiliated

Robert Stokes Sr. – Democrat*

District 13

George Johnson – Republican

Shannon Sneed – Democrat*

District 14

Thomas T. Boyce – Republican

Mary Pat Clarke – Democrat (incumbent)

David Harding – Unaffiliated

On the other hand, some questionable tactics during the election season have continued today. One example is the slashing of 3rd District City Council candidate Ryan Dorsey’s tires this morning, which he discovered at 4:30 a.m. as he was starting his day.

“Thankfully, I have some great neighbors who were willing to help me with transportation,” Dorsey said while greeting voters outside Northwood Elementary. “I have had signs slashed and stolen as well during this entire campaign. Big signs, too. Not just the small yard signs that are easily pulled up.”

In Bolton Hill, windshield fliers headed “Press Release,” with no address or name attached, claimed that former Mayor Dixon, who was forced to resign during her term because of theft and perjury charges, was “set up” by political opponents.

And at Catherine Pugh’s campaign headquarters, the windshield of a van that belonged to her campaign was smashed and its tires slashed, and another van was damaged after part-time campaign workers, expecting to be paid, were told they wouldn’t be needed today, according to reporting by The Sun.

There were also reports of campaign polling places opening late Tuesday, struggles at some venues with the return to paper but scanned ballots, and finally, a shortage of “I Voted” stickers.

Six of the current 15 City Council members declined this year to seek re-election, including longtime legislators Robert Curran, Helen Holton, and Rochelle “Ricki” Spector, all whom are retiring. First District Councilman Jim Kraft gave up his seat to run for judge, and fellow members Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby gave up their seats to campaign for mayor, although Mosby recently dropped out of the race and endorsed Pugh.

Along with efforts to fill those vacancies, 9th District Councilman William “Pete” Welch, who was initially appointed to the seat by his mother, former Councilwoman Agnes Welch, is expected to face a strong challenge from 37-year-old John Bullock, a Towson University assistant professor of government. Bill Henry, the 4th District city councilman, faces a credible challenge from 35-year-old Brian Hammock, a CSX executive.

In the 13th District, 35-year-old Shannon Sneed, who lost to Councilman Warren Branch by 43 votes in the last election, is running again. And, in the 11th District, Councilman Eric Costello, whose appointment to his seat was supported by Council President Jack Young, faces three credible challengers.

Hardly of lesser importance, Baltimore voters will also choose between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Sanders drew a big and enthusiastic crowd to the Royal Farms Arena Saturday, but Clinton maintains a sizable lead in Maryland in the latest polling.

On the Republican side, all three candidates, real estate developer Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich held rallies in the Maryland in the last week, but Trump maintains a large lead in the latest polling.

Baltimore voters, meanwhile, are also expected to play a key role deciding between Prince George’s Rep. Donna Edwards and Montgomery County Rep. Chris Van Hollen in the Democratic primary race to replace Fells Point native and Maryland stalwart Mikulski, whose groundbreaking political career will come to end early next year.

The Republican primary for Mikulski’s long-held seat hasn’t received the same attention—the GOP is out-registered 2-1 in the state—but that field includes Baltimore County Del. Kathy Szeliga, Richard Douglas, a former George W. Bush Defense Department appointee from Bladensburg, and Chrys Kefalas, who worked in former Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s administration, from East Baltimore’s Greektown.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland political science professor Todd Eberly says in two of the big races today—the Baltimore mayoral race and the Democratic U.S. Senate primary—Pugh and Van Hollen have become the frontrunners, but he wouldn’t be completely surprised if the elections go the other way.

“Edwards ran an attack ad recently that portrayed Van Hollen as soft on guns and the NRA and that backfired,” Eberly said. “But until then, it was very close between them. In the other race, Sheila Dixon has a strong core of supporters and I think that race remains combustible, with a lot of undecided voters. I would not be shocked if she won. Stranger things have happened.”

It’s 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 13, and hundreds of Baltimoreans are streaming into the B&O Railroad Museum. Dressed in everything from church clothes to jeans and T-shirts, they breeze past the gift shop, through the historic roundhouse, and outside to the reception pavilion, which is set up for a party with a sundae bar at one end, a DJ booth at the other, and a stage in between. But even the sundae bar’s four flavors of Jack & Jill ice cream and the upbeat strains of Whitney Houston, Bruno Mars, and The Black Eyed Peas are no match for today’s star attraction.

The real reason people came today is standing outside the pavilion’s entrance, dressed in a white ankle-length dress, red blazer, and stiletto pumps. Former mayor—some might say disgraced former mayor—Sheila Dixon is here literally shaking hands and kissing babies, as some 400 supporters pour in for her ice-cream social campaign event. Though Dixon announced she was running to reclaim her old job back in July—and has been hinting at her interest for even longer—this is being billed as her campaign kickoff. It’s her first step toward the Democratic mayoral primary on April 26, and then, if all goes according to plan, the general election a year from now.

Though she still has a long way to go, there is an extra buzz amongst the crowd today; the air feels different. Partly this is literal—a cold front swept through yesterday, pushing out the oppressive heat of summer and replacing it with the gusty coolness of fall—but it’s also figurative. On Friday, Dixon’s successor, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, announced that she would not seek re-election. In light of that bombshell, Dixon’s campaign suddenly seems less like a curiosity (“Baltimore Is Getting Out the Popcorn for Sheila Dixon vs. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake” blared a Baltimore Business Journal headline in July) and more like a real option in a crowded field. Indeed, if the event’s turnout and media profile are anything to go by, Dixon may now be a—if not the—front-runner. Even City Council president Bernard “Jack” C. Young—once rumored to be considering a mayoral run himself—has stopped by to glad-hand prospective voters.

You can tell Dixon feels the momentum as she mounts the dais, looking a good decade younger than her 61 years. She begins her remarks by thanking her many loved ones in attendance—including her two children Jasmine, 26, and Joshua, 20—and wishing happy birthday to several close associates. She then launches into a speech that will be familiar to anyone who has seen the campaign video she unveiled just a day later. She characterizes Baltimore as “smart, tough, and strong”; lauds its citizens as “our greatest asset”; and promises to “reclaim, revive, and rebuild this great city.” But there are hints of a more complicated history here, too. More than once, she emphasizes her experience, and, in the video, she talks about Baltimore’s capacity for “second chances.”

“Clearly, I disappointed people. I was embarrassed. I was devastated.”

Outside the museum, Rick Black, an accountant from Northwest Baltimore who is challenging Dixon for the Democratic nomination, stands with three volunteers, attempting to siphon interest away from the fundraiser. When asked why he is running, his answer is a reminder of all that has gone unsaid today. “We shouldn’t be saddled with a thief for mayor,” he says. “You can’t trust a thing she says.”

Dixon was still City Council president in 2006 when the state prosecutor began investigating her for potential ethics violations, including voting on contracts that benefited her sister’s employer and employing friend and campaign chairman Dale G. Clark without a contract. Though these allegations never resulted in any charges, the sprawling probe continued to home in on Dixon, especially her dealings with developers. In early 2009, Dixon, now mayor, was indicted on 12 charges (five of which were eventually dismissed) that included felony theft, perjury, fraud, and misconduct in office. The resulting trial revealed details about gifts lavished on her by Ronald Lipscomb, a married developer whom she briefly dated, as well as details about a sort of gift card slush fund she had set up for the needy, to which developers looking to curry favor would donate, and from which Dixon was found guilty of misappropriating about $630 worth of cards for personal use. (Dixon maintained that she thought the gift cards in question were gifts from Lipscomb.)

Already convicted of one misdemeanor and facing a second trial for a remaining offense, Dixon accepted an Alford plea deal on a perjury charge—meaning she did not admit guilt but acknowledged a jury could have convicted her based on the evidence. She was required to complete four years of probation, perform 500 hours of community service, and make a $45,000 charitable donation. In return, she would have no criminal record and would keep her $83,000-a-year government pension. But she had to resign as mayor, which she did, reluctantly, at noon on February 4, 2010.

For some, like Rick Black, this is all they remember about Sheila Dixon, and nothing will ever wipe the slate clean. Forget the creation of the free Charm City Circulator bus system. Forget single-stream recycling. Forget all the roads resurfaced as part of Operation Orange Cone. Forget the construction of the city’s first 24/7 homeless shelter. Forget the 20-year low in homicides under the steady leadership of Fred Bealefeld, whom she championed as police commissioner despite enormous political pressure. She is simply a crook, a liar, and a disgrace.

Robert Rohrbaugh, the now-retired state prosecutor who led the Dixon investigation is just as blunt as Black when describing Dixon’s political re-emergence. “Ms. Dixon has every right to seek political office and, in my opinion, the voters have every right to reject her,” he writes via email.

But in between the Rick Blacks and Robert Rohrbaughs of the world and her adoring public, there are voters watching Dixon’s comeback with some vague mixture of interest and unease. They accept that she may have been a good mayor, but they’re not sure she’s a good person. They want to know, who is Sheila Dixon and can they trust her?

About a week after the ice-cream social, Sheila Dixon is alone in her tiny street-facing office at the Charles Village headquarters of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association, where she has been employed since mid-2010. It’s 9 a.m. and, like most days, she has a full schedule ahead of her. Though her title is marketing director, she is, to hear her describe it, more like an executive director, involved in almost every aspect of the organization. It seems she can’t help but run things.

Impeccably fit and well dressed, she is guarded, but radiates an earthy warmth despite her wariness. She dutifully answers questions as we plot the familiar biographical arc, starting with her childhood in a working-class West Baltimore family, then moving along to her education at Northwestern High School, Towson University, and finally The Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her master’s in education management. She touches on her time as a teacher for the city school system, her 17 years as an international specialist for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (now the Department of Commerce), and her deep involvement with her church, Bethel AME, renowned as the place of worship for Baltimore’s African-American power elite.

But it is when she begins talking policy that she comes alive. Whatever else Dixon is, she is truly interested in the mechanics of running a city. “When I got on the [city] council,” she says, “I began to learn city government, learn the budget process, learn the different aspects and the agencies. I was fascinated because I wanted to know how those things worked, so I could do my job even better.”

Her political career started in earnest in 1987 when she won a seat on the City Council, representing much of West Baltimore in what was then the 4th District. “I remember [then Mayor Clarence H.] Du Burns saying, ‘Just don’t get in there and get up and give flowery speeches. You’ve got to get out there and do for your district,’” she says. “And when I went around in my district and saw so many challenges and issues that had not been addressed—I mean, that was the driving force.”

In 1991, she had her first brush with infamy after she took off her shoe and banged it on a table in anger during a council meeting. She shouted at white colleagues, “You’ve been running things for the last 20 years. Now the shoe is on the other foot.” Known as “the shoe incident,” those few seconds branded her as combative and provided plenty of ammunition for those who wanted to reduce her to the offensive “angry black woman” stereotype. It wasn’t until an interview with The Sun eight years later—in the midst of her campaign for City Council president—that she addressed the incident in any detail, explaining that her fury was stoked when a white colleague made bigoted remarks in a closed session before the meeting. The comments, she said then, were like “fighting words, like talking about somebody’s mother.” And yes, it did make her angry. “I was so angry that I was gonna take off my shoe and smack [the white colleague] in the head,” she told The Sun. “And the [TV] cameras were on me and I caught myself, and [Councilwoman] Vera Hall came over and said, ‘It’s not worth it.’ And that’s when I banged the shoe on the table.”

“She grew into the job. She became more, well, mayoral. . . . She listened a lot.”

While the “shoe incident” turned off some voters, it endeared her to others, who saw in her reaction a righteous passion that challenged the status quo.

A former member of the local media who covered Dixon’s career describes her appeal thusly: “She can’t help but engage. She had a lot of emotion that she would just wear on her sleeve. It’s not like she’s going to consult with her press people and she’s going to come up with the best way to respond. There was something very refreshing about that.”

Enough voters supported Dixon in 1999 to make her the first African-American woman elected as City Council president. She won re-election in 2004 and then, when Mayor Martin O’Malley left City Hall for the governor’s mansion in 2007, Dixon finished his term, becoming both the first woman and first African-American woman to hold the position.

Ironically, the same characteristics that got her to the mayor’s office—that unwillingness to take no for an answer—also got her into trouble once she was there. According to the media insider, who requested anonymity because they still cover Baltimore occasionally, Dixon’s Achilles’ heel was a sense of entitlement: “‘I’m entitled to my pay raise. I’m entitled to my driver. I’m the mayor of Baltimore.’” But, the source adds, “I don’t think she’s wrong to look back and say white guys have been having this for years. I’m going to get mine.”

At least initially, Dixon needed that armor of entitlement, says one high-ranking official from her administration. “I remember there were a lot of people who were sort of borderline upset at Mayor O’Malley for leaving the city to Sheila Dixon,” recalls the official, who sometimes works with city government and therefore also requested anonymity. “Many had a Sheila Dixon story, some interaction with her as [City Council] president that they didn’t remember as entirely positive.” But, the official maintains, “She grew into the job. She became more, well, mayoral. She was very receptive to what people had to say; she listened a lot. When people met with her, they really got the feeling that she was interested in what they had to say.”

Her devotion seemed to loosen the sclerotic bureaucracy of city government, and, as she puts it, “unclothe” the potential of Baltimore.

Says Dixon: “I was proud that our city agencies were really stepping up and being a part of the process. Because, you know, in government, people can sometimes get into their little cubicles and they do their job, but they don’t do it for a purpose. People have said to me that they felt like they had a purpose.”

Her former administration official agrees: “There genuinely was a period of excitement when people thought there was a mayor who only wanted to be mayor—nothing more—with her staff rowing in the same direction.”

That made what came next all the worse. Dixon handily won re-election in November 2007, but her days were numbered. In June 2008, the state prosecutor’s office raided her Hunting Ridge home, carting away boxes of evidence. In January 2009, the indictments came down. She was on trial by the fall and convicted on December 1. By February 4, she was out of a job, snowed in at home during the back-to-back Snowmageddon blizzards of 2010, “crying, eating snacks that I normally wouldn’t eat, watching movies, and trying to be strong for my son because he was home.”

“It was very painful,” she continues. “I mean, I loved what I was doing. The people who were part of my team, they also felt pain because they love city government. Clearly, I disappointed people. I was embarrassed. I was devastated.”

It is this shattered trust that Dixon has to mend if she has any hopes of winning back her position. But some experts say it can be done.

Jeff Smith, an assistant professor of politics and advocacy at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School in New York City, is the co-author of a forthcoming paper on political comebacks and says there are three main factors to consider: first, “the electoral context,” (i.e. “the partisan and social composition of the constituency”); second, “the nature of the past scandal and the appropriateness of [the candidate’s] response”; and lastly, the “candidate’s charisma.” Smith thinks that—in lieu of a strong challenger—Dixon has a good shot.

“The crime was not a disqualifying crime,” says Smith, whose experience with political scandal is not merely academic. A former Missouri state senator and U.S. congressional candidate, he was convicted of two felony counts of obstruction of justice in 2009 for which he served a year in federal prison. “You can’t come back from, like, pedophilia,” he continues. “Taking $500—not saying it was right or condoning it—is the kind of thing that I think voters would potentially be willing to forgive.” He further believes that “the demographics of the city are favorable for Dixon.” In fact, he sees a lot of parallels between Dixon and the late Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who was reelected just four years after he was busted smoking crack cocaine during an undercover sting.

“I wrote a piece about Barry for Politico,” Smith says. “And the main thesis of the piece is that a lot of elites, especially white journalists, will just be appalled that voters would continue to support Marion Barry. I felt like a lot of that commentary ignored the deep history Barry had with voters, especially in the poorest sections of the city. And from what I’ve read and heard, Dixon has a similar orientation as a politician.”

“Some people are not as forgiving as others . . . and hold certain judgments.”

This would not come as news to Dixon. Before she entered the race, she commissioned an internal poll, which, according to her, revealed strong support for her candidacy overall, but some deficits, particularly in white neighborhoods. “Some people are not as forgiving as others, and some people hold certain judgments because of perceptions—and I’m not saying African-Americans don’t either, that’s not what I’m saying—but that’s where [support is weakest],” she says.

Dixon is attempting to address this by going to these resistant neighborhoods and hosting informal Q&As that she describes as “very open, frank conversations that range from A to Z.”

She also formally apologized—though with mixed results—during a May interview on WJZ, in which she said, “I think people in Baltimore want to hear my sincerity—that I am sorry for what happened. I’m apologizing about it. I also know that people want to hear that I have not taken anything for granted in that process of what happened.”

The euphemistic, passive language irked many. Writing in The Sun, columnist Dan Rodricks later called the apology “weak” and “five years too late,” and a separate Sun editorial in July snarked, “color us unimpressed.”

She does better during our conversation in September admitting that she has “a lot of regrets,” that she visited a therapist in the wake of the scandal, and that, if re-elected, she will “be more transparent in every aspect of what I do in my life.”

But it is also true that to watch Dixon discuss the scandal is to watch someone walk a tightrope between contrition and defiance. She will, in one breath, say that she was unfairly targeted by the state prosecutor and the media, and then, in the next, admit to the hurt and chaos she caused. That she seems sincere about both only complicates matters.

So it becomes not so much a question of Dixon as a question of you, the voter. Is she sorry enough for you? Did she learn enough for you? Do her positive qualities outweigh her shortcomings? Does she deserve a second chance? Dixon, of course, thinks she does.

Only time will tell if the voters of Baltimore agree.

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Election 2016: The Candidates

Besides Dixon, here’s a list of those who have declared their candidacies.

Rick Black, Democrat: An accountant from Northwest Baltimore, Black’s website calls him a “fierce advocate against government overreach [who] wants to return our city to the principles of honesty, personal freedom, and financial transparency.”

Mack Clifton, Democrat: A minister and author who has experienced homelessness, Clifton says on his website that he doesn’t “believe in thinking inside the box.”

Bonnie Renee Lane, Green: A native of Michigan who has lived in Baltimore since 2001, Lane cites her top issues as affordable housing, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, and ending police brutality.

Mike Maraziti, Democrat: The owner of Fells Point bar One-Eyed Mike’s and the president of the Fells Point Main Street business association, Maraziti says his priorities include education, lowering property taxes and crime, and restoring accountability.

Connor Meek, Unaffiliated: After being mugged earlier this year, Meek wrote an editorial in The Sun calling for police stations to stay open around the clock, a policy that has since been adopted.

Collins Otonna, Independent: In an email, Otonna describes himself as a “full gospel evangelist,” who works in development commerce and runs two nonprofit foundations, building public libraries in West Africa.

Catherine E. Pugh, Democrat: Currently a state senator repping the 40th District, Pugh also has been a state delegate, City Council member, journalist, and businesswoman. She previously ran for mayor in 2011.

Carl Stokes, Democrat: Stokes currently represents the 12th District on the City Council. He previously ran for mayor in 1999.

Brian Charles Vaeth, Republican: Vaeth is a former Baltimore City firefighter who received a career-ending injury on the job and has spent the subsequent years embroiled in a lawsuit against the city.

Calvin Allen Young III, Democrat: Young, 27, is a native Baltimorean who has a degree in mechanical engineering from New York University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nick Mosby, Democrat: As a Baltimore native who was elected to represent to City Council in 2011, Mosby represents the 7th District, which was consumed by much of the rioting and peaceful protesting surrounding Freddie Gray’s death.