Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott will begin airing TV ads Wednesday, part of a media campaign that blends his personal story with a promise to build a “better Baltimore” if elected mayor.
Scott’s ads will begin airing on cable television, joining a handful of other prominent mayoral candidates taking their messages to voters’ screens. Scott campaign spokesman Marvin James declined to say how much the ad buy cost, but said it is “competitive” and will be seen across the city.
The 30-second spot opens with Scott, 35, recalling a childhood in Park Heights, where people dealt with drugs, guns and violence every night.
“I remember asking, ‘Why doesn’t anyone care?’ My mom said, ‘If you want it to change, you have to change it yourself,’” Scott says in the ad. “And that’s when I knew I had to serve.”
Scott says he wants to chart “a new way forward” by creating a more accountable government, providing better educational opportunities and tackling “the disease of gun violence.”
The Democrat was elected to the council in 2011 and became president last year.
Former U.S. Treasury official Mary Miller, former Deputy Maryland Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah and Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young have also started running campaign ads. They are competing in a crowded Democratic primary that also includes former Mayor Sheila Dixon, state Sen. Mary Washington and former Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith.
Those already on the air are at the front of the pack financially in what is expected to be an expensive and bitter runup to the April 28 primary.
According to campaign finance reports filed last month, Scott had nearly $430,000 cash on hand.