The effort to draft NAACP President Kweisi Mfume to run for mayor of Baltimore cleared its first hurdle yesterday as a state Senate committee approved a bill that would cut the residency requirement for the office.
The Senate Economic and Environmental Matters Committee voted 7-4 to pass the bill, which would set the residency requirement at six months and give Mfume enough time before the November general election to relocate from Catonsville to Baltimore, where he has lived most of his life.
Last week, committee Chairman Clarence W. Blount called off a vote on the measure midway through a roll call, apparently because it was not clear whether he had enough support to send the bill to the Senate floor.
One member of the committee said Blount, a Baltimore Democrat, had worked hard to solidify the majority for the bill, assuring colleagues that Mfume would be a candidate.
Interviewed after the vote, Blount steered clear of any mention of Mfume, a former Baltimore congressman who left office in 1996 to become president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Said Blount: "We need the best candidates we can get; we need the best mayor we can get."
Other committee members were less reticent about the purpose of the bill.
Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, a Baltimore County Democrat, said she is an unabashed admirer of Mfume, crediting him with restoring the credibility of the NAACP.
"I'm confident that he will do the right thing, and the right thing is to save the city," Hollinger said.
Since Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced last December that he would not run for a fourth term, leading city and state officials have expressed dissatisfaction with the field of candidates.
Mfume has said publicly that he is not a candidate, but he has come under growing pressure to run. This week he has acted more like a prospective mayor, staging a high-profile visit to Annapolis to meet with Gov. Parris N. Glendening and legislative leaders.
The opposition to the bill came from the 11-member panel's three Republicans, who were joined by Sen. Joan Carter Conway, a Baltimore Democrat.
Pub Date: 3/13/99