As the board of the NAACP begins a series of meetings today in Miami, Kweisi Mfume, the group's president, is under mounting pressure to decide whether to run for mayor of Baltimore.
Mfume's ardent supporters in Maryland see the meetings as decisive to a mayoral candidacy, and NAACP board members are looking at Julian Bond as Mfume's potential replacement as the administrative leader of the civil rights organization.
Asked whether Mfume appears to be close to a candidacy, Larry Carter, a board member from Des Moines, Iowa, said, "It seems like it's moving in leaps and bounds in that direction. ... He'll probably let us know a lot more" in Miami.
Maryland Comptroller and former Mayor William Donald Schaefer, a key member of the Draft Mfume committee in Baltimore, counseled Mfume to "to stop all of this stuff about begging him to run. It's up to him now to make a decision right away."
As celebrations of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's 90th year begin, predicting whether the former U.S. representative and West Baltimore city councilman will run remains as hard as forecasting Saturday's Preakness winner.
"A month ago, I would have said [the odds against Mfume's running were] 70-30, but now I'd say it was 50-50," said Tony Fugett, a Baltimore NAACP board member. "He is such a magnet, and he's the type of person who feels he can make a difference."
All agree that until Mfume announces, Baltimore's mayoral campaign remains on hold. Candidates are unable to campaign effectively, interest groups are handcuffed in persuading contenders to adopt positions, and campaign contributions remain frozen.
"He has the same impact that IBM has on the Dow Jones" stock market index, downtown developer Otis Warren said of Mfume's decision.
Mfume has made two speeches in the past two weeks indicating that he is interested in the job. He said last week that he expected to make an announcement after the Miami meetings.
Mfume must decide whether to risk a career in which he has emerged as one of the nation's chief civil rights leaders to tackle a city teeming with seemingly intractable problems such as violent crime, drug addiction, woeful schools, high unemployment and a stagnant tax base.
Potential rewards
The rewards for turning the city around could include a seat in the U.S. Senate, which would fulfill Mfume's dream of returning to Congress. The danger is that he could become mired in city troubles that put on hold the Senate hopes laid out 12 years ago by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.
For Mfume supporters such as Warren, the future of Baltimore hinges on this weekend. Warren has joined 250 state, city, business and community leaders who have taken out newspaper ads begging Mfume to join the mayor's race and formed the Draft Mfume Committee 2000.
Backers of Mfume, who grew up poor in West Baltimore, think he could consolidate state, city and regional politicians willing to work together to aid a city that was once the heart of Maryland.
"He can lead," Warren said. "And he can bring people together."
The unanswered question, detractors say, is whether Mfume could handle the nuts and bolts of being an effective mayor. Frustrated citizens want to know what solutions the 50-year-old former leader of the Congressional Black Caucus has for city woes.
As a city councilman, Mfume is remembered for his black nationalist passions and his often harsh opposition to Mayor Schaefer, whom he held up as the symbol of white dominance over blacks in the city. His most renowned piece of council legislation was one that forced the city to divest itself of holdings in South Africa, then under apartheid.
In Congress, Mfume softened his approach, emerging as a compromiser and learning to work with opponents -- even mending fences with Schaefer, by then governor -- to push for legislation to help minority businesses and the urban poor, particularly public housing residents.
Some wonder whether Mfume, who earns $220,000 a year as NAACP president and recently purchased a $300,000 Inner Harbor condominium, will be able to relate to everyday mayoral duties such as making sure people's trash gets collected.
"I don't know of anything he did as a councilman or congressman that impacted my front yard or back yard," said Timothy Mercer, a West Baltimore neighborhood activist who is backing former Councilman Carl Stokes for mayor.
City of contrasts
What Mfume would bring to City Hall, even some detractors agree, is a restoration of the city's wounded image. From its role as the the base of a national television show, "Homicide: Life On The Streets" to Schmoke's going on Jay Leno's television show to discuss the city's being named the venereal disease capital of the nation, Baltimore has become a tale of two cities, the glittering Inner Harbor and nearby neighborhoods festering with poverty mindful of the Third World.
The city unemployment rate is 9 percent, double the national average. The average of 300 homicides a year over the past decade gives the city the fourth-highest homicide rate in the nation. One in eight city adults is a drug addict. Every month, about 1,000 residents flee the city. And the property tax rate is double that of any other jurisdiction in the state.
"Baltimore is in critical condition," said Wenda Royster, a Washington talk show host who lives in Baltimore.
In repairing the NAACP since leaving Congress in 1996, Mfume is credited with building a high-quality staff to find ways to seal the organization's financial leaks while filling its coffers with fresh ideas. Mfume helped erase a $3.2 million deficit and embarked the agency on a $50 million, five-year endowment program.
What Mfume offered the group most -- and what entices supporters to call him to run for mayor -- is his role as the NAACP's polished spokesman, convincing black Americans that their most treasured organization would be OK.
"It would be a great loss to the NAACP and Baltimore's gain," Bond, the NAACP chairman, said of a possible Mfume candidacy. "But the institution of the NAACP is bigger than one person."
Ronald Walters, a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park who tracks the NAACP, considers Bond a top prospect to fill Mfume's seat if it becomes vacant.
"They wouldn't have to go far to convince him. He may not be attracted to all the moving around [the job would require], but he'd be the logical choice," said Walters.
Bell runs ads
Among those hoping Mfume stays out of the mayoral race is City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III. Mfume's second cousin began running radio ads this week indicating his possible mayoral candidacy. The ads swipe at Mfume for not living in the city until last month, when he purchased the harbor condominium.
Gov. Parris N. Glendening signed a state law reducing the residency requirement for Baltimore mayors from one year to six months, allowing Mfume to qualify. Bell, a 12-year council veteran, is fighting the move, trying to persuade a majority of the council, 10 colleagues, to reverse the law.
Bell campaign workers are threatening to attempt to block any Mfume candidacy by filing a suit contesting the state residency change if Mfume decides to run.
Last week, it was revealed that Mfume voted in the city while living in Catonsville over the past three years. Mfume has declined to comment on the matter pending a review by State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli. State election leaders say Mfume might have maintained his legal right to vote by owning property in the city and failing to change his voter registration or driver's license to the county.
Bell's ads, while not formerly declaring his mayoral candidacy, note that "he lives in the city." Yesterday, Bell struck at Mfume again, running a radio ad with the endorsement of former Rep. Parren J. Mitchell.
If Mfume decides against running for mayor, Bell is expected to join a Democratic field that includes Stokes, Register of Wills Mary W. Conaway and A. Robert Kaufman, founder of the City Wide Coalition. City State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy is also expected to file before the July 6 deadline.
Sun staff writer Ivan Penn contributed to this article.
Pub Date: 5/13/99