Exactly two weeks ahead of primary election day, the leading Democratic candidates for Baltimore City mayor made their final pitches during a debate hosted by WYPR, The Baltimore Banner, WJZ-TV and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore.
A crowd of around 100 guests gathered into H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons on the university’s campus Tuesday to hear from incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott, former mayor Sheila Dixon, attorney Thiru Vignarajah and businessman Bob Wallace.
In Baltimore, Democrats outnumber Republicans 10-1 and the winner of the primary will almost inevitably become mayor in November.
“They were all going after the undecided [voters] right now. I don't think anybody is trying to peel support off of each other,” said Roger Hartley, the dean of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. Hartley noted that the candidates all seemed to take aim at Mayor Scott’s track record.
“I think everyone sees him as a front runner, and the other three are trying to distinguish themselves as the ‘other than Scott’ candidate,” observed Hartley.
The one-hour moderated debate aired live on WYPR and heard candidates make their cases on how they would improve city services, tackle the affordable housing crisis and how they plan to handle development projects like the redevelopment of Harborplace.
Public Safety
Mayor Scott touted his Group Violence Reduction Strategy and the recent 2023 homicide reduction in which the city experienced a 21% drop in fatal shootings and a 7% drop in nonfatal shootings. The city also saw about a 20% decrease in carjackings.
Scott shot back against his opponents, like Dixon, who often say the incumbent is not aggressive enough on quality of life crimes.
“Every time we take down drug organizations, through GVRS or other means, that’s improving quality of life… we have to acknowledge that people being shot, people being murdered, robbed and people being carjacked are impacting quality of life. Less and less of that is happening in Baltimore each and everyday,” he said.
Dixon argued that other crime is up in most of Baltimore’s neighborhoods, according to some Baltimore Police data. She also noted that she is now endorsed by the City’s State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and Sheriff Sam Cogen.
“Partnership is what it’s going to take,” said Dixon. When Dixon served as mayor from 2007-2010, homicides continued to drop after they started falling under Martin O’Malley. “I did it in a recession where we had very little money,” the former mayor touted.
Vignarajah asked how crime could be improving if it was still the number one issue on people’s minds. He tried to cast doubt on the mayor’s numbers for crime reduction but did not offer his own solutions during the debate.
Bob Wallace pitched for his “village” public safety plan. The idea in that plan, he said, is to design a community-led strategy that is unique to each “village” or neighborhood.
“I am interested in helping the community to take more control of their safety and their neighbor,” he said.
City Services
Scott’s administration has faced heavy criticism, particularly from Dixon, over its perceived inefficiency in providing services like permitting, filling potholes and other beautification and cleanliness efforts.
Scott has been adamant that he is modernizing the city’s services.
“When I came into office, there was no recycling. We had no GPS in our vehicles and they were using paper maps to find out where everything was,” he said. Scott said it was the “right thing” to order updated vehicles but the customized vehicles ended up coming to the city three-years after they were ordered due to supply chain issues.
He also emphasized his administration’s efforts to offer more competitive wages. Scott is widely endorsed by most of the area’s most prominent unions.
“We finally fought to have the Highway User Revenue funds restored so that we can build our bridges, repave our roads, fill more of our potholes. That’s the leadership that you will continue to have with me,” said Scott.
Dixon hammered that it is time for “city employees to come back to work.” City employees are allowed to telework no more than two days of the week.
“The city is filthy. We’re the dirtiest city in America… I ask myself as I drive around the city, is anyone seeing this?” she said. She said there are too many silos in city government and that more work should be done with the private sector to provide services.
Vignarajah said he would implement an online tracker system for potholes, graffiti and trash. A citizen could take a photo of a pothole or graffiti and the site would put a geo-pin until the problem is remedied.
“I don’t expect you to be spending your nights watching a pothole tracker but I want my employees thinking that you are. I want them worrying that there are too many red pins on that pothole tracker,” said Vignarajah.
Scott did something similar for his “90-day blitz” of city services.
Affordable Housing
Moderators asked how each candidate would engage communities to address the city’s affordable housing shortage.
“I’m going to create a Housing Neighborhood Authority which will be a public-private entity. We’re going to take the land bank and put that over there so we can streamline the process and be able to move this process quickly,” said Dixon. Land banks allow blighted properties to be transferred to new, more responsive owners.
One of the problems with affordable housing is that the city remains segregated, said Vignarajah. He scoffed at Scott’s claims that vacant housing was reduced from 16,000 to 13,000. “What he doesn’t tell you is that the number of vacant lots skyrocketed,” said Vignarajah.
Vignarajah said he would raise taxes on blighted and abandoned properties. He also proposed taking properties with unpaid environmental citations into receivership and then through eminent domain transferring those properties to affordable housing organizations and local developers. He also suggested bringing back the “dollar homes program” — a similar version of which Mayor Scott introduced and implemented earlier this year.
Scott said that the number of vacants in Baltimore is not a cause for celebration but acknowledged that it was still “great progress.” He lauded his $3 billion vacants plan that will be done in partnership with Greater Baltimore Committee and Baltimoreans United in Leadership (BUILD). As part of that, the city has pledged $300 million to be spread out over the next decade and a half. Those funds will go to reinvesting in vacant houses and will be paid back with the help of tax-increment financing (TIF).
Where the candidates stand
Dixon served as mayor from 2007-2010 but was unable to finish a full-term in the office. In January 2009 she was indicted on 12-counts related to perjury and theft. She was convicted on embezzlement charges months later for a case related to stolen gift cards that were meant to go to the poor. In 2010, Dixon resigned as mayor as part of a plea deal related to another separate perjury case.
The most recent data from a survey conducted by the Baltimore Banner and the Goucher College Poll reports a surge in support for incumbent Scott. In that poll, around 40% of Democratic voters said they were likely to vote for him, 32% were planning to support Dixon while Vignarajah had support from 11% of surveyed voters. About 3% of surveyed Democrats planned to vote for Wallace.
The primary election is on May 14th. Early voting begins on May 2nd.
