Ending five tantalizing months of speculation that had paralyzed Baltimore's mayoral race, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said yesterday that he will not run for mayor and will remain with the civil rights organization.
Despite an exhaustive effort by state, city, business and community leaders to recruit the former West Baltimore congressman and city councilman into the race, Mfume said yesterday that his "inner voice" told him to remain with the nation's oldest civil rights group.
"I have repeatedly, from the outset, said that I would not be a candidate because I believe that with all certainty that my work here with the NAACP and on the national level was in many respects a job uncompleted," Mfume said at a news conference at the organization's national offices in northwest Baltimore.
The Mfume announcement finally thaws a city election frozen by his indecision. Candidates hoping to run in city races ranging from council president to council district seats have been anxiously waiting for Mfume's announcement to determine their political futures. The filing deadline for city races is July 6.
Council President Lawrence A. Bell III -- Mfume's second cousin -- said yesterday that he will announce his mayoral bid this week. Bell, a West Baltimore councilman for 12 years, may hold a slight name recognition advantage in the race to succeed Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.
Schmoke will step down in December after 12 years, creating the first mayor's race without an incumbent in 28 years.
Mfume's decision could bode well for former East Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes. The former city school board member, who lost to Bell in the council president's race in 1995, declared his candidacy in December and has been slowly gathering support.
Mfume, however, controlled the race. A group called the Draft Mfume 2000 Committee had taken out newspaper ads and floated the idea of raising the city's $95,000 mayoral salary in hopes of enticing Mfume away from the national civil rights spotlight and his $220,000 a year job as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Taking shots
Bell will have to build support with Mfume backers disappointed by political shots he took at his cousin in radio ads over the past two weeks. A jingle in which high school students sing, "I Like Lawrence Bell," notes that Bell "lives in the city."
Mfume had lived in Catonsville, although he purchased an Inner Harbor condominium last month.
Recently, the General Assembly passed and Gov. Parris N. Glendening signed a law that reduced the residency requirement for Baltimore mayoral candidates from one year to six months, a measure believed to have been drafted to allow Mfume to run.
Bell had obtained a mayoral endorsement from retired Rep. Parren J. Mitchell, a political mentor whom Mfume credited with changing his life. The Mitchell family accused Bell of taking advantage of Mitchell, who is 78 and ailing in a Northwest Baltimore nursing home.
"Lawrence took some serious shots at Kweisi, and although I thought that things like that happen in politics those shots were below [Bell's] standards or what I believed to be his standards," said Baltimore attorney Billy Murphy, a longtime supporter of both men. "I think he's going to have to reach out to a whole bunch of those folks who love Kweisi and mend some fences."
'The healing process'
Bell said yesterday that the Mfume announcement will begin "the healing process." Bell called Mfume a "mentor" and said his decision to stay with the NAACP will help Baltimore maintain national political clout. "I think it's a win-win for everybody," Bell said.
Mfume refused to throw his support behind any of the remaining candidates, saying his organization would wait until the official filing deadline passes. He dismissed the Bell ads as a part of politics.
"Let's face it, I've been the big target," Mfume said. "Who else you going to beat up on?"
Mfume declined yesterday to reveal the chief factor in his decision not to join the race.
In two speeches last month at Baltimore colleges, Mfume had flirted with a run, expressing his love for the city.
"There was a part of me that really got electrified at the concept," he said.
Yet the city's seemingly intractable problems could have proved political quicksand. Council members were told yesterday that the city faces budget deficits of $153.5 million over the next four years.
A gut feeling
While flying back on Air Force One over the weekend from a weeklong White House mission to Ghana, Mfume said he finally had some quiet time to think. He awoke Sunday with a gut feeling that he should stay with the NAACP.
"Yesterday, for the first time in weeks, I awakened with absolute clarity about my future and about my work," Mfume said. "I know my job is to finish the work that I have begun."
Word of Mfume's decision to spurn a bid for the city's top elected position disappointed supporters. The group viewed the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus as the antidote to Baltimore woes that include the fourth-highest murder rate in the nation, joblessness double the national average and a population of drug addicts that may be as high as one in every eight adults.
Mfume gained the support of three former Baltimore mayors, state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, Clarence H. "Du" Burns and Thomas D'Alessandro III.
"In Baltimore, it was unprecedented in terms of the broad- based enthusiasm for his candidacy," said Rebecca Hoffberger, founder and director of the Baltimore Visionary Arts Museum. "It would have been nice to have such a unifying force."
Glendening, who backed Mfume's candidacy, said he supported the decision.
"I believe that Kweisi Mfume would have made a great mayor for Baltimore City," Glendening said through spokesman Ray C. Feldmann. "But I support Mr. Mfume's decision to remain at the top of the NAACP. I believe his leadership of the NAACP is crucial as we help to achieve the organization's agenda of equality for all."
Glare of the media
Despite not being an official candidate, Mfume felt the sting of media attention. This month, the city elections board confirmed that despite his having lived in Catonsville for the past three years, Mfume had voted in the city. The matter is under review by the state prosecutor, Stephen Montanarelli, to determine whether Mfume broke state voting rules.
Last week, federal authorities charged Mfume's youngest son, Ronald Gray, 29, with selling cocaine in Washington. Gray, who pleaded not guilty, was released from jail to a halfway house at a hearing attended by Mfume.
Cheers at the NAACP
Mfume's announcement pleased NAACP staff members, about 75 of whom attended the news conference and cheered his announcement.
"There's a collective sigh of relief on the part of the staff," said Jeanne Hitchcock, the organization's chief operating officer. "It was distracting but now we have our leader back with increased focus."
Some on the NAACP board insisted yesterday that they never believed that Mfume would leave the organization.
"He's been saying he wasn't interested all along," said William Lucy, a board member from Washington. "I took him at his word."
With Mfume out of the race, candidates estimate that they will need to raise $1 million each to get their message to city residents and win. Bell has raised more than $400,000. Stokes said he has topped the $250,000 level.
Other Democrats who have declared their candidacies in the mayoral race are Baltimore Register of Wills Mary W. Conaway, City-Wide Insurance Coalition founder A. Robert Kaufman and community activists William E. Roberts Sr. and Phillip A. Brown Jr.
Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said last week that she would consider a mayoral bid if Mfume did not run.
Sun staff writers Eric Siegel and Erin Texeira contributed to this article.