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In The Midst Of Freddie Gray Drama, Baltimore Mayor Makes Huge Announcement No One Expected
Embattled Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced on Friday that she will not seek re-election.
Speaking from City Hall, the mayor said in a surprise announcement: “It was a very difficult decision, but I knew I needed to spend time, the remaining 15 months of my term, focused on the city’s future and not my own.” She has been in office since 2010.
Rawlings-Blake, 45, stated that it became clear to her that any time she spent on re-election “was time that I was taking away from my current responsibilities to the city, to the city that I love, and the city that I took an oath to serve. And because of that, I have made the decision not to seek re-election.”
When calling donors or conferring with political strategists, she said, “I had the constant feeling that I needed to be back at City Hall doing the work to move our city forward, rather than running for re-election… I knew that I needed to spend time – the remaining 15 months in my term – focused on the city’s future, and not my own.”
“The city is in a very critical time right now. We’re working very hard to reform the Police Department,” the mayor added. “We have to get our city through six separate trials. Nobody planned for that.”
The New York Times noted that “[h]er decision came one day after a judge ruled that the trial of the officers would remain in Baltimore and in the same week that the city announced a settlement of $6.4 million with the family of Mr. Gray, who died after suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody. The death spawned a wave of looting, arson and riots [in April] — the worst unrest the city had seen since 1968.”
As reported by Western Journalism, Rawlings-Blake came under intense criticism for her handling of the Baltimore Riots during the critical first days of the violent outbreaks. According to a senior law enforcement source, the mayor ordered officers to stand down. This order came after the mayor stated she wanted to protect the protesters’ First Amendment rights, letting “those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”
Several candidates had already indicated their interest in succeeding Rawlings-Blake as mayor of Baltimore before Friday’s announcement. Among them is City Councilman Nick Mosby, husband of Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, whose office is trying the six officers charged in the Freddie Gray criminal case. The couple lives in the district where the riots broke out.
Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and other state- and city-level officials have already entered the race.
Mayor Rawlings-Blake stated she knew her re-election campaign would be hotly contested, but believed she could win. She pointed out that her campaign has more cash on hand than the other candidates. “I haven’t lost a campaign since middle school,” she said. “It’s not that I didn’t think I could win, I just knew I had to ask myself the question: ‘At what cost?’”
Rawlings-Blake has served in office for the last 20 years, having first been elected to Baltimore City Council when she was 25 (the youngest ever elected to the position).
h/t: TheBlaze
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/in-the-midst-of-freddie-gray-drama-baltimore-mayor-makes-huge-announcement-no-one-expected/
