A heated on-air debate between Mayor Sheila Dixon and State Del. Jill Carter turned ugly off-air, asanother candidate said he had to step in to keep the peace.
“They were at each other’s throats,” said Clerk of the Court and mayoral candidate Frank M. Conaway Sr. “It wasn?t nice. They were getting at it. I had to spread my hands to keep them apart.”
The spat ignited after Dixon and Carter disagreed sharply over state control of city schools Thursday during a candidate forum on WOLB-AM.
Joined by mayoral rivals City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell, Conaway and city school administrator Dr. Andrey Bundley, Dixon and Carter clashed on-air over who should have control of the schools ? the state or the city ? while attacking each other in the process.
“Both Dixon and Mitchell were nowhere to be found at the legislative session this year when it came to ending the city-state partnership,” Carter said. “Sheila Dixon didn’t come to one single meeting to address the city delegation, not one single time.”
Dixon fired back.
“Jill Carter didn’t see me because she wasn’t there at any of the meetings,” Dixon said. “She has the worst record.”
Dixon added that the state delegation was little help when the city schools faced budget woes in 2004.
“We have legislators who are running for mayor who have not even been a part of the process in funding our schools,” Dixon said in an obvious slap at Carter. “That’s why we had the $53 million deficit.”
But Carter said the city’s dismally low graduation rate meant the city-state partnership should end now.
She then slammed Dixon?s attendance record.
“There was not one single open-door meeting with the city delegates that you attended,” Carter said. “I will not sit here and be discredited.”
That’s when the trouble began, Conaway said. “It was a cat fight.”
Dixon spokesman Anthony McCarthy took issue with Conaway?s description of the disagreement.
“I think that Del. Carter was forceful and pointed in her criticism, and the mayor was equally responsive,” he said.
Carter also disagreed with Conaway.
“I was just forcefully setting the record straight with the mayor,” she said.
The exchange between Dixon and Carter led a lively morning debate that encompassed crime, commitments to minority businesses and improving parental accountability.
On the issue of crime, Dr. Bundley challenged Mitchell’s call for 400 more police officers.
“Let’s not create a police state by bringing in more police and making Baltimore occupied territory,” he said.
Conaway said the city’s crime problem should be left to the experts.
“All of us should take our crime plans and throw them in trash can,” he said. “We need to let the experts and criminologists run the police department.”
Meanwhile, socialist candidate Robert Kaufman was steaming after being escorted out of Radio One’s offices by three Baltimore County police officers.
Kaufman was slated to participate in a debate today with the remaining candidates, but he thought he should have been included in Wednesday’s forum.
“It’s not the first time,” he said. “They gave me the choice of going to jail, but my stomach hurt too much.”
