As Mayor Sheila Dixon continued to rake in the cash and endorsements, her rivals spent the weekend looking for new ways to reach voters ? saying the race for mayor was not yet over.
On Monday, Baltimore City School Administrator Andrey Bundley rolled out his new campaign strategy ? literally: a fully equipped mobile office in a refurbished motor coach bus.
Bundley said he would use the vehicle ? fittedwith a waiting room, conference area and private “mayor?s” office ? to counter Dixon?s cash and clout.
“This is a prototype,” Bundley said. “We?re showing people that we will be in the community and how we will differ from the current administration,” he said.
For the next 30 days, Bundley said, he will visit city neighborhoods to give people a preview of his administration.
“This will help people understand what kind of mayor I?ll be,” he said.
State Del. Jill Carter completed her fifth night on a forgotten city corner, spending Friday evening into early Saturday morning with homeless men at Eastern Avenue and South Grundy Street.
“There are no shelters in their neighborhood, so they sleep on the street,” she said.
Carter believes her after-hours presence in places unlikely to attract other candidates will pay off for her campaign.
“Action resonates with the voters,” she said. “Particularly the kind of action that brings us together with the people most politicians ignore,” she said. The people in these neighborhoods feel neglected by City Hall and marginalized by their government. If I can do one thing in this campaign, I plan to correct that injustice.”
And even as Dixon picked up major endorsements from Gov. Martin O?Malley and former Rep. Kweisi Mfume on Monday, rival candidates failed to concede the race was lost. Baltimore City Clerk of the Court Frank Conaway Sr. said he felt O?Malley?s endorsement would hurt Dixon?s campaign.
“It means we will have more of what we?ve had for the past eight years: him telling her what to do,” he said. “I?m not worried about it; people who want real change will vote for me.”
Meanwhile, Conaway and Carter, along with Robert Kaufman, Michael Schaefer, Phillip Brown and Elbert Henderson, battled at a lively candidate?s forum on The Ed Norris Show on 105.7. Dixon and City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell declined to participate in the radio debate, citing previous commitments.
