Last summer, the Baltimore County Council created a west-side district designed to encourage the election of the first African-American council member in county history. And weeks later, African-American leaders introduced a "consensus candidate" in hopes of keeping others from entering the race.
Now, three months before the primary, those leaders are abandoning Kenneth N. Oliver - a decision that some fear might help a white candidate win.
They also have persuaded one of his most prominent backers, Sen. Delores G. Kelley, to withdraw her support and to consider endorsing a new African-American candidate, Clifford J. Collins III.
"The complaint I was hearing was a lack of vigor," Kelley, who represents the 10th Legislative District, said of Oliver. "People started off really enthusiastic, and when they started to have their spirits flag ... they decided to act.
"They came to me with it, and if it had been just one or two sources, I might have moved ahead, but I heard enough that I thought I ought to stop and see what's going on."
Oliver, who recently resigned as chairman of the county planning board to devote his energies to campaigning, said he will continue his quest for the 4th District council seat.
Six other candidates - including three white contenders - have announced their candidacy in the district, which includes Woodlawn, Randallstown and parts of Owings Mills.
Oliver is disappointed by the desertion, but doesn't believe it has anything to do with his campaigning; no former backer offered to help him improve, he said.
Instead, Oliver said, he is being abandoned because he refused to follow orders. Kelley and others are less concerned about victory by a white person than with victory by a black person they don't control, he said.
"It's not the campaigning skills. It's wanting to control," Oliver said. "It's a matter of control."
This is the second time this spring that Kelley has abruptly changed allegiances. On the last day of the General Assembly session in April, Kelley told Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr. that he will not be included on her 10th District ticket.
Burns said Kelley's treatment of Oliver is "wrong - people's professional careers should not be toyed with like that."
Kelley's efforts to control the race might backfire, he said.
"If we had had a more democratic selection process, we could have decided on ... a consensus person, and we wouldn't have this splintering," Burns said. "And because of that, we may not get an African-American elected in a majority African-American district."
The issue came to a head after Oliver missed a candidates' forum May 23 because of a family funeral.
He didn't send a representative or campaign literature to be distributed - a mistake, he acknowledged.
Ella White Campbell, a longtime community activist from Randallstown, said she and other local leaders were "appalled" by his absence. Dissatisfaction with Oliver had been fermenting since a previous forum.
Other community activists "commented on how terrible his appearance was and how arrogant he appeared," Campbell said. "He came across as, 'I'm smarter than the rest of you,' but he didn't answer the questions of any of the people."
After the forum May 23, Campbell met with 15 other community activists, whom she would not identify, and they decided to seek another candidate. They settled on Collins.
Collins, 55, says he has agreed to enter the race. The Randallstown resident and executive director of the nonprofit Job Opportunities Task Force Inc., plans to focus on economic development, education, public safety and the high number of group homes in the district.
Until recently, Collins and his wife were working on the council campaign of Charles Arthur, a Democratic State Central Committee member who is strongly critical of Oliver's work on the planning board.
"Nothing in politics surprises me," Arthur said.
Oliver has support from other parts of the county political establishment because of his years on the planning board.
County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Councilman Kevin Kamenetz, who aren't as directly involved in the campaign as Kelley, spoke on Oliver's behalf at his March fund-raiser.
Kamenetz, a Pikesville Democrat, questions the wisdom of looking for another candidate so late in the campaign when several "worthy and qualified candidates" are already in the race.
"Not only do you have to increase visibility, but unfortunately you also have to have money to get your message out," Kamenetz said.
"As we approach the last 90 days of a campaign, it's difficult if you have to spend much of that time trying to raise money," he said.
The 4th District field has grown crowded. Two new candidates appeared at the forum May 23: Democrat Leo O'Brien and Republican Gail Thies, both of whom are white.
They join four Democrats who had declared: Oliver; Arthur; Noel Levy, vice chairman of Citizens for Property rights; and Penny McCrimmon, a longtime political and community activist. Arthur and McCrimmon are African-American; Levy is white.
"It's very disingenuous that after 10 months of carting [Oliver] around and supporting him to find he's not competent and stop supporting him," McCrimmon said. "I think it's ratty, and he's my competition."