One Chance, Two Many Choices

Baltimore is facing a local election more important than anything else - the governor's race, congressional seats, assembly seats, everything else.

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby is up for re-election.  The Mosby who immediately upon taking office in 2015 proved her unfitness, first by purging experienced prosecutors for grudge reasons and then by persecuting six police officers for the death of Freddie Gray who were innocent of any crime.

I won't reiterate the facts of that folly.   Here is what relevant now:  that Mosby and her team have presided over a rate of crime that exploded with her Freddie Gray prosecution and shows no sign of abating.

And while the Police Department hasn't helped matters with a corrupt Gun Trace Task Force that the feds had to bring down (in a real prosecution), the fact remains that no good cop on the street can do his or her job with any confidence that the city's top prosecutor won't charge them criminally for any mistake or accident that occurs on their watch.  No wonder the Police Department faces problems recruiting qualified candidates.  And what lawyer of any competence and experience would want to work for Mosby?  Criminals are walking free on her watch and the crime rate proves it.  

Fortunately, we have two men ready to challenge Mosby, willing to take on the herculean task of repairing the damage she has done to both the prosecutor's office and the police department.  Unfortunately, we have one challenger too many.   

Most city residents outside the criminal justice community do not understand Mosby's incompetence.  What they see is a young African American woman who "tried" to do something about bad police officers.  Many are willing to blame the "system" for her failure, and credit her for taking it on.  

So to defeat Mosby, the challenger will have to make people understand not that Mosby has made them less safe, but that he can make them more safe.  It's a delicate tightrope to walk.   He will need low voter turnout, an energized base of his own, and one more crucial component:  the ability to get every single non-Mosby vote. 

Instead we have two challengers to divide that vote, neither of whom agree with me.   Both Ivan Bates and Thiru Vignarajah told me that while having a second challenger makes the task of defeating Mosby more difficult, each believes he can win anyway.  Vignarajah is counting on his fundraising ability, and Bates on his church base.  

Which candidate do I prefer?  It doesn't matter, because the presence of both of them will re-elect Mosby.  Two of them equals four more years of Mosby.   Perhaps city residents need that extra four years of high crime to convince them that Mosby needs to go.  I just shudder at the cost. 

I respect and admire Bates and Vignarajah for their efforts.  Being a serious candidate for any office is one of the most difficult and energy-sapping endeavors I can think of, especially in an era of anonymously vile internet attacks that candidates must ignore.  And I hope that I am wrong and they are right, that one of them will defeat Mosby. 

If both men file to run for State's Attorney this week then I will offer my view for voters wondering what to do, for what it's worth.  But here's hoping one of them puts the defeat of Mosby above their own candidacy.