Now we begin to test the power of political memory. Keiffer Mitchell Jr. runs for mayor of Baltimore, and Michael Sarbanes for Baltimore City Council president, and each carries his family name as a symbol of pedigree and a sign of instant familiarity for voters in an election season that so far carries all the thrills of watching paint dry.
In January it was Councilman Mitchell declaring he would challenge incumbent Mayor Sheila Dixon, and Wednesday it was Sarbanes declaring he?ll run for the council presidency now held by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who carries her own family history.
For many Baltimoreans, it will feel like the coming of age of a new political generation.
Mitchell is a fourth-generation political figure in his family. His maternal great-grandmother, Lillie Carroll Jackson, led civil rights efforts nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
“God opened my mouth,” she famously said, “and no man can shut it.”
Jackson?s daughter was Juanita Jackson Mitchell, the NAACP matriarch and wife of Clarence Mitchell Jr., whose civil rights lobbying helped give the nation a conscience, and whose brother, Rep. Parren Mitchell, the first African-American congressman from Maryland, will be buried next week.
Sarbanes, executive director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, arrives as the son of retired Sen. Paul Sarbanes and brother of newly elected Rep. John Sarbanes.
Their father was sometimes called the stealth senator. He made no headlines, and never held much regard for TV appearances. But across more than three decades in politics, no one?s reputation for integrity and intelligence was higher.
Rawlings-Blake, the daughter of the late State Del. Howard (Pete) Rawlings, carries her father?s legacy. He was a powerful and respected presence in state and city politics ? and a man who lived long enough to heed his daughter?s words.
When Martin O?Malley first ran for mayor, he approached Rawlings for support.
“I admire your guts,” said Rawlings. “Stephanie [who served on the City Council with O?Malley] thinks very highly of you. But I?m leaning toward [Carl] Stokes.”
Part of it was belief in Stokes, and part was the racial connection to which generations of politicians, black and white, have instinctively turned. But Rawlings wondered about it. And, as he later told the story, his daughter approached him.
“O?Malley?s a good man,” she said.
“What are you telling me?” said her father.
“Not to support him because he?s white defies everything our whole family?s ever been about.”
Her words helped set off one of the most dramatic moments in modern Baltimore politics, when Pete Rawlings stood in front of War Memorial Plaza and announced his support for O?Malley in front of raucous street-corner political hacks brought in by another candidate. They imagined they would intimidate Rawlings. They failed.
But, with O?Malley now in Annapolis, replaced as mayor by Dixon, and Rawlings-Blake in Dixon?s old council president?s seat, it sets up precisely the kind of scenario we?ve been through before ? candidates competing across a racial divide, and voters wondering: Should such things matter?
Or, as we watch the next generation of familiar political names compete, have we finally learned to judge the individual strictly on qualifications? It?s been a long and often painful journey to reach such a point.
Two decades ago, George Mitchell told a story about that journey. George?s father was Clarence Mitchell Jr., the great NAACP lobbyist. George Mitchell was a businessman whose brother, Clarence III, was a state senator, and brother Michael was a city councilman. It was the day the city named the Calvert Street courthouse for Clarence Mitchell Jr.
“My father,” said George Mitchell, “would come home late at night from Washington. My mom would make allowances for us to stay up late. And I remember hearing his key turning in the lock, and we would rush to meet him.
“And the relief we had, because the telephone would have rung earlier, and voices would say, ?Your father?s not coming home.? Bomb threats. I remember laughing at them sometimes, but then I remember when Medgar Evers was killed ? it was two days after he?d had dinner with us ? and we began to take the threats more seriously.”
These candidates running today are the children of those who struggled through such tough times, and made it their life?s work to relegate it to the past. Maybe we live in more civilized times now. Maybe the old struggles counted for something. Maybe voters won?t care about race as much as character, and maybe the new generation of candidates will lead us to such a day.
Please send news tips to Michael Olesker at [email protected]
