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By Sean Yoes
AFRO Baltimore Editor
[email protected]
Recent polls suggest the race to be the next mayor of Baltimore is still wide open with about a month left before early voting begins for the April 28 Primary. But, former mayor, Sheila Dixon sits at the top of three of those polls.
In a new poll conducted by the Baltimore Sun, WYPR and the University of Baltimore, Dixon garnered 16 percent of the polls sample of primary voters, followed by City Council President Brandon Scott and former Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah both at 10 percent. Former Baltimore Police Department Spokesperson T.J. Smith is next at 9 percent, followed by former T. Rowe Price executive Mary Miller with 7 percent and Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young at 6 percent.
In a Fox 45/Gonzales poll released Feb. 26, Dixon at 17 percent, holds a narrow lead over three candidates tied for second at 15 percent: Smith, Vignarajah and State Sen. Mary Washington. Scott is third in the Fox/Gonzales poll with 11 percent, followed by Young at 9 percent.
The Sun and Fox polls both have Dixon in the lead, but the Sun poll indicated a massive 40 percent of voters still undecided about who they will vote for to lead the city in April.
Also in February, in a poll conducted by Global Strategy Group and commissioned by the Scott campaign, Dixon again finished at the top with 20 percent of voters. After Dixon the poll places Scott second with 16 percent, Smith third with 13 percent, followed by Mayor Young at 11 percent, who is tied with Vignarajah at 11 percent, Washington at 9 percent and Mary Miller at 2 percent.
So, what’s it all mean?
I’m no political scientist, but I’ve been watching the political game in Baltimore for a while and a few things do seem clear.
Vignarajah and Miller have more money than the other candidates and they are deluging Baltimore airwaves with their messaging. But, the seemingly divergent candidates also have very different missions. Miller’s mission is simple: buy name recognition. She has an impressive list of accomplishments during her career in finance and policy, but she is essentially an unknown quantity by the vast majority of Baltimore voters.
Vignarajah’s media blitz is all about establishing himself as the “law and order” candidate. Wielding the “law and order” banner historically has been a dubious tactic at best in communities where a large segment of the population are low-income people of color.
But, Vignarajah’s billboard hovering over the Jones Falls Expressway seems to be an overt appeal to fear and loathing. It simply reads, “End the Bloodshed.”
As if somehow the ascension of Vignarajah to the mayor’s chair means the end of bloodshed in Baltimore.
All the groups and organizations working on the streets of Baltimore, some for decades, to slow the bloodshed in the city only for Vignarajah to suggest the bloodshed will end if you elect him mayor. Just like magic.
This man seems to be otherworldly arrogant.
Nevertheless, crime, murder and mayhem seem to be the issues most prominent in the minds and hearts of Baltimore residents for good reason. And perhaps the two men currently occupying the top seats in city government, Mayor Young and Council President Scott are struggling in the polls because of it.
Smith, a political novice certainly seems to be holding his own as he pushes forward with his grassroots campaign. And so does erudite Mary Washington, who is consolidating her base in East Baltimore and working to make inroads in West Baltimore.
But, if it isn’t clear to all that aspire to be mayor, or in the case of Young hold onto the chair, don’t sleep on the woman who once held the chair.
Dixon has had no television advertising, at least none that I’ve seen, yet she remains at the top of most polls despite her challenges. And that’s because Dixon’s following is arguably the most loyal in the city.
Those that dismiss that do so at their own political peril.
Sean Yoes is the AFRO’s Baltimore editor and the author of Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Real Stories From One of America’s Great Imperiled Cities.
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