Baltimore mayoral election, 2007

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Baltimore mayoral election, 2007

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  Mayor Dixon.jpg No image.svg
Candidate Sheila Dixon Elbert Henderson
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote36,7265,139
Percentage86.3%12.1%
Mayor before election

Martin O'Malley
Democratic

Elected Mayor

Sheila Dixon
Democratic

The 2007 Baltimore mayoral election was held on November 6, 2007. Because Baltimore's electorate is overwhelmingly Democratic, Sheila Dixon's victory in the Democratic primary on September 11 all but assured her of victory in the general election, [1] and she defeated Republican candidate Elbert Henderson in the general election by an overwhelming majority. Dixon, who as president of the Baltimore City Council became mayor in January 2007 when Martin O'Malley resigned to become Governor of Maryland, was the first woman to be elected to the office.

Baltimore Largest city in Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city in the state of Maryland within the United States. Baltimore was established by the Constitution of Maryland as an independent city in 1729. With a population of 611,648 in 2017, Baltimore is the largest such independent city in the United States. As of 2017, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be just under 2.808 million, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (60 km) northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the fourth-largest CSA in the nation, with a calculated 2017 population of 9,764,315.

Democratic Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Sheila Dixon American mayor

Sheila Ann Dixon served as the forty-eighth mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. When the former mayor, Martin O'Malley, was sworn in as governor on January 17, 2007, Dixon, the president of the Baltimore City Council, served out the remaining year of his term. In November 2007, she was elected mayor. She was the first African-American female to serve as president of the City Council, Baltimore's first female mayor, and Baltimore's third black mayor.

Contents

Background and candidates

Martin O'Malley, the winner of the previous mayoral election, was elected governor of Maryland in 2006. Therefore, city council president Sheila Dixon became mayor for the final year of what had been O'Malley's term, and subsequently ran for reelection to a full term. Other candidates for the Democratic nomination included city councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr.; Andrey Bundley, a former school administrator who was O'Malley's only major opponent for the Democratic nomination in 2003; Frank M. Conaway, Sr., the only person, other than Dixon, in the race to have won a citywide election, who withdrew before the primary, Maryland state delegate Jill P. Carter; [2] and perennial Baltimore-area candidate and social activist A. Robert Kaufman. Elbert Henderson was the sole candidate for the Republican nomination; he was the Republican nominee in the previous election, losing by a wide margin to O'Malley. [3] Kweisi Mfume, former Congressman and president of the NAACP, was at one point rumored to be considering a run, but ultimately chose not to join the race. The Green Party did not nominate a mayoral candidate. [4]

Martin OMalley American politician

Martin Joseph O'Malley is an American politician and attorney who served as the Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. He previously served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, and was a councilman from the Third Council District in the northeast section of the city on the Baltimore City Council from 1991 to 1999.

Maryland House of Delegates lower house of U.S. state legislature

The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, the state capital. The State House also houses the Maryland State Senate Chamber and the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland. Each delegate has offices in Annapolis, in the nearby Casper R. Taylor Jr. House Office Building.

Dixon had the advantage of incumbency, but Mitchell, who was seen as the mayor's most prominent opponent, hoped to overcome that advantage with a grassroots campaign. [5] The beginning of Dixon's term and campaign was dogged by an ethics investigation, although the city's Board of Ethics ultimately found no reason to prosecute her. [6] An upsurge of violent crime in Baltimore during the first half of 2007 affected early campaigning. Dixon launched a number of anti-crime initiatives, focusing on illegal guns. [7] Mitchell's initial campaign moves focused on crime; Carter, criticizing Dixon's administration for what she called overzealous policing, promised a total revamp of the police department, stating that "if we had leadership in this city, we would have already changed police commissioners. [3] " The Baltimore police commissioner later resigned his post on July 19, in an act that some observers felt would affect the course of the race. [8]

July 2007

With less than two months remaining before the Democratic primary, Carter officially announced her candidacy, and poll of likely Democratic voters commissioned by the Baltimore Sun showed Mayor Dixon holding a comfortable lead over her nearest challenger. The poll, released on July 16, 2007, had Dixon leading Councilman Mitchell with 47 percent of the likely primary voters to Mitchell's 15 percent. The rest of the field was in single digits, below the poll's margin of error, with 28 percent undecided. Although candidates would not be required to release fundraising numbers until August, Dixon was reported to have sizeable lead in this area as well. [9]

August 2007

With little more than a month left until the primary election, Dixon further distanced herself from her primary opponents. On August 3, 2007, Mitchell's father resigned as treasurer of his son's mayoral campaign after it was discovered that he spent more than $40,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses. [10] Despite this incident, Mitchell said that his campaign remained focused on the problems facing Baltimore City. Meanwhile, Carter focused her campaign on the impending 50% BGE rate hike calling for re-regulation, reforming public education, and effective policing, and restoring integrity to City Hall while continuing her attack on Dixon by charging her with not showing at local political forums and for sending city employees in her stead. At a press conference outside City Hall, Carter and a campaign worker dressed in a yellow chicken suit handed out copies of a letter she sent to the State Ethics commission complaining about the practice.

Televised debate

On Monday night, August 27, 2007, all eight democratic candidates for Mayor appeared in a debate televised by Maryland Public Television and WBAL-TV. During his introduction, candidate Conaway announced that he was withdrawing from the race and throwing "his money and support" behind candidate Mitchell. [11] The debate lasted fifty-five minutes with each candidate giving an opening and closing statement and answering questions posed by reporters in between. The debate was sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Greater Baltimore Committee.

League of Women Voters Non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group

The League of Women Voters (LWV) is an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs after they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920 to support the new women suffrage rights and was a merger of National Council of Women Voters, founded by Emma Smith DeVoe, and National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. The League of Women Voters began as a "mighty political experiment" aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men. LWV operates at the local, state, and national level, with over 1,000 local and 50 state leagues, and one territory league in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Fundraising

Baltimore's WJZ-TV reported that the Dixon campaign said that as of August 30, it had more than $480,000 left to spend in the final two weeks before the September 11th Democratic primary. Carter's campaign reported having just over $8,000 on hand, [12] and Bundley's campaign reported having $15,000 left as of the mid August 2007 campaign reporting date. [13] Mitchell had just over $115,000 in cash on hand as of August 26. [14]

September 2007

Just over a week before election day, a September 2 Baltimore Sun poll had Dixon maintaining her strong lead. According to the Sun, "Dixon leads City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. by 46 percent to 19 percent – a 27 percentage-point spread – according to the poll conducted by OpinionWorks, an independent Annapolis-based firm." According to a number of experts, the race never really became competitive. Lenneal J. Henderson, a professor at the University of Baltimore's School of Public Affairs, said, "I think it is over. It would take a huge misstep on the part of Sheila Dixon for her not to win this one. [15] " Bundley (4%) and Carter (2%) showed no improvement over the previously released July poll.

Primary election: Dixon victory

On the night of the primary, less than three hours after the polls closed, Mitchell conceded defeat and Dixon claimed victory in the primary election.

Primary election results

These are the final, official results for the Democratic primary, as reported on the city of Baltimore's election board Web site. [16]

CandidateVotes%
Sheila Dixon54,38163.1%
Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr.20,37623.7%
Andrey Bundley6,5437.6%
Jill P. Carter2,3722.8%
A. Robert Kaufman8851.0%
Mike Schaefer7620.9%
Frank Conaway5330.6%
Phillip Brown2730.3%

Elbert Henderson ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

General election campaign

Because of the city's overwhelmingly Democratic tilt, campaigning largely ceased after the primary, with Dixon and other citywide candidates maintaining "bare-bones" campaign staffs. [17] On a low-turnout general election day, Dixon defeated her Republican challenger with more than 87 percent of the vote.

General election results

These are the official results for the general election, as reported on the city of Baltimore's election board Web site. [18]

CandidateVotes%
Sheila Dixon36,72686.28%
Elbert Henderson5,13912.07%

Other city elections

All other Baltimore city officers were also up for election simultaneously with the mayor, including the fourteen members of the Baltimore City Council (elected from single-member districts) and the City Council President and City Comptroller (both elected citywide). Incumbent comptroller Joan Pratt ran unopposed in both the Democratic primary and the general election, and none of the twelve council members seeking re-election faced serious competition in either election; one ran unopposed in the primary [19] and seven ran unopposed in the general election. [16] All fourteen council members returned in the general election were Democrats, [19] as has been the case in every election since 1939. [17]

The race for the Democratic nomination for City Council President was perhaps the closest of the election cycle. The two major candidates were incumbent Stephanie Rawlings Blake, a former council member who had been appointed to fill the position with Dixon became mayor, and Michael Sarbanes, a community activist and the son of former United States Senator Paul Sarbanes and brother of U.S. Congressman John Sarbanes. A July poll had the two virtually tied, with 27 percent of respondents favoring Sarbanes and 26 percent favoring Rawlings Blake, with Councilman Kenneth N. Harris, Sr. a distant third at 8 percent. [20] Rawlings Blake subsequently overtook Sarbanes, however, and won the primary election with 49 percent of the vote to Sarbanes' 38 percent. [19] In the general election, the incumbent handily defeated her only opponent, Green candidate Maria Allwine, garnering 82 percent of the vote. [16]

Mayoral endorsements

A number of city groups offered endorsements of the various candidates over the course of the campaign:

Democratic Party
Republican Party
CandidateEndorserDate of EndorsementComments
Andrey Bundleynone listed yetno endorsements listed on campaign web-site
Phillip Brownnone listed yetno campaign web-site yet
Jill P. Carter ACORN [21] July 31, 2007Community organization that spearheaded campaign for Question P in 2002
Frank ConawayWithdrew 8/27/07
Sheila Dixon SEIU June 12, 2007national union of service workers, with local in Baltimore
United Auto WorkersJune 20, 2007
Laborers Baltimore Washington CouncilJuly 12, 2007national union of construction laborers and public employees representing 5,000 laborers in Baltimore
Md & DC State Council of MachinistsJuly 2, 2007all machinists locals in Baltimore
UNITE HEREJuly 12, 2007represents 20,000 hospitality, food service, laundry, retail and apparel workers in Baltimore and the surrounding region.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of CarpentersJuly 14, 2007represents 12,000 members
Baltimore Retired Police Benevolent UnionJuly 14, 2007represents retired Baltimore police officers.
Baltimore AFL-CIO [22] July 19, 2007all AFL-CIO affiliated unions in Baltimore
Peter Franchot [23] July 24, 2007Maryland state comptroller, polled well in Baltimore City
Elijah Cummings [24] August 12, 2007Maryland congressman, polled well in Baltimore City
Martin O'Malley [24] August 13, 2007Maryland governor, polled well in Baltimore City
Kweisi Mfume [25] August 13, 2007former Maryland congressman, former head of the NAACP
Progressive MarylandAugust 22, 2007statewide progressive organization with over 1,000 Baltimore members
The Baltimore SunSeptember 2, 2007Baltimore's major daily newspaper
The Baltimore Afro-AmericanAugust 25, 2007published weekly
Desiree DotsonWithdrew – 19 March 2007
A. Robert Kaufmannone listed yetno endorsements listed on campaign web-site
Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr. Douglas Gansler January, 2007Maryland Attorney General
Baltimore FOPJuly 24, 2007organization of police officers
Baltimore City Sheriff's Office LodgeJuly 31, 2007organization of deputy sheriffs [26]
Baltimore City Firefighters Local 734August 9, 2007organization of active and retired firefighters [27]
Baltimore City Fire Officers Local 964August 9, 2007organization of active and retired fire officers [27]
Frank ConawayAugust 27, 2007Baltimore City Clerk of the Courts, former 2007 mayoral candidate.
City PaperSeptember 5, 2007Baltimore City alternative newspaper, published weekly
Mike Schaefernone listed yetno endorsements listed on campaign web-site
Elbert Hendersonnone listedno web-site yet

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References

  1. ↑ http://www.wmdt.com/wires/displaystory.asp?id=65600131
  2. ↑ http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=8ff3cfdd-ef68-4971-9787-d6062bda00b9%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  3. 1 2 Reddy, John Fritze and Sumathi. "2007 city candidates set". baltimoresun.com.
  4. ↑ "Baltimore Green Party".
  5. ↑ "Topic Galleries – baltimoresun.com".[ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ http://wbal.com/commentary/defilippo/story.asp?articleid=53965
  7. ↑ Simmons, Melody (3 May 2007). "Baltimore Mayor Unveils Strategy to Attack Increase in Gun Crime".
  8. ↑ "WTOP: Washington, DC's Top News, Traffic, and Weather". WTOP.
  9. ↑ "Dixon dominates field -- baltimoresun.com". 30 September 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  10. ↑ "Mitchell's Father Quits As Campaign Treasurer - Baltimore News Story …". 16 May 2007. Archived from the original on 16 May 2007.
  11. ↑ http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=62412
  12. ↑ Campaign Finance Database – Summary report search results
  13. ↑ Campaign Finance Database – Summary report search results
  14. ↑ "wjz.com – Dixon Keeps Fundraising Lead With New Poll Ahead".
  15. ↑ "Dixon keeps strong lead – baltimoresun.com".
  16. 1 2 3 Website, City of Baltimore, Maryland – Official. "Baltimore City Elections Board". www.baltimorecity.gov.
  17. 1 2 "Topic Galleries – baltimoresun.com".
  18. ↑ "Statement of Votes Cast" (PDF). Baltimore Elections Board. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  19. 1 2 3 Elections, Maryland State Board of. "2007 Baltimore City Primary Official Election Results". www.elections.state.md.us.
  20. ↑ "A tight contest for front-runner".
  21. ↑ http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/blog/2007/07/miscellany_1.html
  22. ↑ "Labor group backs Dixon, Rawlings-Blake – baltimoresun.com".
  23. ↑ http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=61086
  24. 1 2 http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=61816
  25. ↑ "O'Malley, Mfume Endorse Dixon In Mayor's Race – Baltimore News Story – WBAL Baltimore". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
  26. ↑ "Topic Galleries – baltimoresun.com".
  27. 1 2 http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=61734

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