After years of fending off criticism for back-room maneuvering, the Baltimore City Council is embarking on what it calls the most public process ever to fill two vacant seats.
Yet the council is finding old political habits hard to break. Even as they begin public hearings to select successors to two councilmen who won General Assembly seats, members of the 1st and 6th Districts are privately promoting their favorites.
"This is definitely a wide-open process," said 1st District Councilman John L. Cain. But in the next breath, he joked, "Get out the cigars. There are front-runners, sure. This is a political process."
The 19-member council called for an open nomination process in 1990, after an outcry over the appointment of a member of an old-line political club to a vacant 6th District seat. Amid complaints that "back room politics" were depriving the district of black representation, the council amended its rules to require that candidates be interviewed at a public hearing within 30 days after a seat becomes vacant.
A year later, the council's black coalition crafted a plan to tip the racial balance among the six councilmanic districts from three majority-black districts to five. The election-year goal was to both increase the number of black council members and overcome the dominance of white political alliances in the 1st, 3rd and 6th districts.
The 1991 redistricting helped Councilman Melvin L. Stukes become the first black to represent Southwest Baltimore's 6th District. It also led to the ousting of two veteran organization politicians from East Baltimore's 1st District, the only remaining majority-white district.
Council members say results of the redistricting are likely to be evident again with the choice of successors to Perry Sfikas, a 1st District councilman elected to the state Senate, and Timothy D. Murphy, a 6th District councilman elected to the House of Delegates.
In the 6th District, both Mr. Stukes and Councilman Joseph J. DiBlasi agree that they would prefer a black candidate to replace Mr. Murphy. The district now has a black population of close to 60 percent, they say, and the council representation should reflect the change.
Nevertheless, both men say they will keep an open mind in considering the candidates they interview the night of Feb. 15.
Tonight at 7 p.m., the 1st District delegation will screen 13 candidates seeking to replace Senator Sfikas. But both Mr. Cain and Councilman Nicholas C. D'Adamo Jr. already are publicly supporting candidates.
Mr. Cain said he considers Kelley Ray, an environmental and housing activist from Belair-Edison, the front-runner. Mr. D'Adamo is backing Lois A. Garey, executive director of the Harbel Community Organization. Mr. D'Adamo had wanted to appoint former state Sen. American Joe Miedusiewski, who lost a bid for governor, but he declined.
Some political observers say the disagreement between Mr. D'Adamo and Mr. Cain represents the strains created by redistricting, which shifted the more affluent neighborhoods of Federal Hill and Otterbein into a traditionally ethnic and white working-class district.
"There's been a big shift in the general makeup of the district and from the old political clubs to more issue-oriented community groups," said Mr. Sfikas, who beat a veteran of the once-powerful political machine to capture a seat in the Senate.
Others suggest the two 1st District councilmen must agree on a candidate to avoid maneuvering by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke or his declared mayoral rival, Council President Mary Pat Clarke.
Council members say they will bow to traditional council courtesy in approving the nominee of the district delegations.