With less than 24 hours left for Baltimore?s mayoral hopefuls to pick up votes, candidates hit the streets Sunday, visiting farmers markets, attending church and pounding the pavement to make one last push before Tuesday?s primary.
City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell Jr. was out early, serving coffee to potential voters at the farmers market under Jones Falls Expressway. Undaunted by polls showing him lagging behind Mayor Sheila Dixon, Mitchell said prognosticators may eat crow Wednesday morning.
“We?re going to surprise people,” he said, shrugging off the public spat with his father, Dr. Keiffer Mitchell Sr., over disputed campaign spending and unpaid rent.
“Voters care about the rising homicide rate and failing schools, not that,” he said.
At least one city resident, an avowed Mitchell supporter waiting in line for coffee, agreed.
“I found bullet shells out in front of my house,” said Bill Monahue, 34, a resident of East Baltimore. “I think he?s the only one who can solve the crime problem.”
Dixon spent the afternoon canvassing the Irvington neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore, the district of City Councilwoman Helen Holton, who accompanied the mayor as she knocked on doors.
At one stop, Dixon got an earful from new homeowner Roger Wardlaw, 40, who complained of a neighbor who sold drugs from his car.
“He meets people in the alley in the afternoon,” he told the mayor.
Promising to deploy more police officers to the neighborhood, Dixon said reducing crime required efforts from both citizens and officers.
“Officers need to get out of their cars and talk to you,”? she said. “We need to rebuild trust and communication with the community.”
Wardlaw appeared satisfied with the mayor?s answer. “I?m voting for her,” he said as she left.
At least one candidate said he was preparing a “surprise” strategy for Tuesday?s primary, predicting a strong turnout that will confound both pollsters and pundits.
“We have a surprise group of voters that will change this election,” said Andrey Bundley, hinting the group might be 18- to 30-year-old residents who, Bundley has argued, do not register in opinion polls.
“There is going to be a very high turnout, because people are seeking change,” said the candidate, who spent the day knocking on doors and visiting neighborhoods in his conspicuous retrofitted “mobile” mayor?s office tour bus.
But State Del. Jill Carter, who spent the weekend organizing volunteers to pass out campaign literature outside the polls Tuesday, said she thought turnout would be low.
“What I have learned is the media has too much power,” she said. “They led the public to believe they had only two choices, Mitchell and Dixon, and they didn?t generate any passion.”
Still, Carter was optimistic about her chances.
“Voters have a choice between a clean glass and a dirty glass tainted with the filth of corruption.” she said.
“I hope they?ll choose the clean one.”
Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
