They're off and running.
As a heated public debate developed this week over the city's scandal-ridden rehab-housing program, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced that his re-election campaign for a third term would get going earlier than he had originally planned.
His decision may have been influenced by his challenger, City Council President Mary Pat Clarke, who opened her headquarters earlier this month and then issued a withering broadside at the mayor for the housing fiasco. But another reason why Mr. Schmoke decided to advance the timetable of his re-election campaign is that serious questions about his administration's performance must be countered quickly and supporters organized.
There is every reason to believe that the mayoral race that will culminate in the Sept. 12 primary will be combative. Regardless of whether additional candidates get into the race, the Schmoke-Clarke contest will be a battle of the titans, each of whom has a solid power base.
Although vacancies in the offices of City Council president and comptroller also will be filled in the fall elections -- along with all 18 City Council seats -- those campaigns will be mainly sideshows. This was suggested by the two mayoral candidates themselves, who announced that they would run -- at least initially -- on their own without forming tickets with other citywide office seekers.
If things indeed develop as they have so far, Baltimore may be in for one of the most spirited -- and substantive -- mayoral races since 1971, when then-City Council President William Donald Schaefer defeated two other Democratic hopefuls and captured the mayor's office.
Mr. Schaefer's 1971 campaign was different from most recent elections in that he clearly detailed his agenda in a mimeographed 90-page compendium, "Where I Stand."
"The key issue is delivery of services -- whether it is better police protection, housing, education or sanitation. Improved management is central to an improved delivery system. Substantive proposals and programs will not achieve their goals unless backed up by a vigorous managerial approach. This is my strength; my approach to the city's business," Mr. Schaefer wrote.
In retrospect, the Schaefer record of success in those complex areas was a mixed one. But to a surprising degree the issues in this year's mayoral election are the same as in the 1971 contest: How to make a big city more viable and more efficient.
The Sun's re-hab housing series is a starting point for a comprehensive evaluation of the eight years of the Schmoke administration. What Baltimoreans need now is a blueprint from Mary Pat Clarke on how she would run the city differently.