By Ryan Leshko
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Pastor Shannon Wright has worked tirelessly over the past few months to convince voters that she is the best candidate for mayor in Baltimore, but in a city that has been dominated by Democrats for more than 50 years, the Republican’s chances of winning are virtually nil.
To say that Wright is facing an uphill battle would be an understatement. According to her latest campaign finance report, Wright has only $8,678 in her campaign war chest compared to the $158,652 available to her Democratic opponent, Council President Brandon M. Scott.
It begs the question. Why do Republicans run at all?
“The statistics and numbers show that the city is going in the wrong direction,” Wright said. “It didn’t just happen yesterday and it’s been going in the wrong direction for quite some time. It’s time for somebody to step up and try to bring some new policies that might actually work.”
Christopher Meltzer, the CEO of Wright’s campaign, said Democrats have overseen a city where crime is up and economic development in down. He said Republicans are stronger on crime and the economy than Democrats.
“Crime needs to be resolved,” Meltzer said. “Economic development needs to be resolved. These are the things Republicans are good at doing. We fundamentally believe it’s not about the party, it’s about the people.”
Tony Campbell, a vicechair in the Maryland Republican Party, sees promise, but also a disconnect.
“One of the things that I, and other folks, are working through and struggling with is making sure that the candidates that we have get the support that they need,” Campbell said. “Part of my frustration is making sure that Republicans across the state understand how valuable these candidates are and how transformative they are. We’ve got eight or 10 really good candidates this time and now it’s just getting them the support that they need to make a mark.”
Baltimore City Council member John Bullock, D-9th District, said Republican candidates tend to struggle because they are not in the public eye in off years and only seem to surface on Election Day.
“Part of the challenge when we see some of these candidates is that they’re not very visible, so they may pop up during an election cycle, but prior to that, there’s not much you’ve seen from them,” Bullock said. “Now, with some exceptions, there are some candidates, who have, in some ways, become perennial candidates to run for multiple offices, but no one whose been able to be a standard-bearer who can represent the party and show some activity, or robust activity at the local level.”
Dennis Betzel, another vice chair of the Baltimore City Republican Party, said one reason GOP candidates are not visible is because they do not get enough media coverage.
“We’ve been shunned by the media for a number of years and thankfully we are gaining a little bit of ground,” Betzel said.
Richard Vatz, a professor of rhetoric and communication at Towson University, agrees and believes that there would haveto be some media fairness to Republicans.
“There would have to be extensive coverage of the disastrous leadership by local see-no-evil, hear-no-evil media,” Vatz said. “Listen to WBAL radio and all other radio, save WCBM, and The Sun and search for coverage of these devastating causes of city misery,” Vatz said. “To this day The Sun won’t even cover Sen. Jill Carter’s support, which Maryland Democrats never mention, of the odious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan: almost none whatsoever in any of them; no coverage of the tragic situation of schools, except to say they need more money; no pressure on political, school, community or religious leaders in interviews to address these problems.”
Republican candidates have had other issues in terms of gaining ground.
“It’s a struggle to get any money for any advertising or anything like that,” Betzel said. “Several of our candidates have had doors slammed in their faces and they’ve had death threats. I ran for office back in 2011 and I experienced exactly that.”
Wright has broken through and received some attention from the news media in the city.
“This is the first time in recent memory that a Republican candidate has gotten as much coverage in the media thanks to our efforts and thanks to the fact that Pastor Wright is articulating what true Republicanism and conservatism is,” Meltzer said. “That’s what we are going to continue to do: get the message out as to what we really stand for.”
Even though the Republicans might not have the media coverage they need, Campbell believes that talking to voters is one of the necessary things to try to level the playing field with Democrats in Baltimore.
“We’ve got city council candidates that are knocking on doors and you don’t have Democrats doing that because they assume that they have the vote for granted,” Campbell said.
Betzel added that the main reason that the candidates run is to make a change. In order to make those changes to Baltimore, they have to win starting on Election Day.
“It’s challenging, but not impossible,” Bullock said.
1 Comment
Good article that raises important questions. However, we know nothing about the candidate from this article — where is she a pastor (her church members must offer some support and if the congregation is large enough, those voters can make a dent in the process).