He has his second wind; now Mfume is charging

Kweisi Mfume is shunning the ‘front-runner’ label, but with a recent poll showing him leading Maryland’s Senate race, his campaign is hoping to press his advantage

Friday, July 14, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette Vernon Jordan (right) greets Kweisi Mfume at the fund-raiser he hosted for the U.S. Senate candidate on Tuesday. The Washington insider's blessing symbolizes the wave of momentum that Mfume has been riding; the Jordan event and another one in Chicago the day before gave Mfume a two-day haul of $100,000 to make up some ground financially on Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin. Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette U.S. Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume speaks with Howard University president Patrick Swygert at a fund-raiser Tuesday.

Jordan, a civil rights pioneer and Democratic Party power broker, watched as Mfume’s campaign was cold-shouldered by party leaders, decried in a series of negative headlines and disdained by a skepticism that the former Baltimore congressman and NAACP president could win.

Sixteen months later and less than two months before the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Mfume’s campaign has evolved from stillborn to insurgent. Mfume’s campaign, still lagging in fund-raising and infrastructure compared to his main Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, has been jolted anew by a recent Washington Post poll that has him leading Cardin by six points.

‘‘I think he can win,” Jordan said Tuesday night at a fund-raiser he hosted at his Washington home that raised about $50,000 for Mfume’s campaign.

The night before, Mfume raised a similar amount at a Chicago fund-raiser thrown by Linda Johnson Rice, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines.

The uptick in poll numbers is giving Mfume a much-needed boost that his supporters hope to leverage into cash. Mfume shunned the notion that he is the front-runner, but he acknowledged there has been a ‘‘crescendo” of positive news recently.

‘‘This is what you want 62 days before the election ... you want to see this type of momentum,” Mfume said Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who has not made an endorsement yet, introduced Mfume at Jordan’s party. Cummings had high praise for Mfume, leading many to believe that his endorsement — a major coup for any statewide candidate — may not be far behind.

‘‘I think the Cardin folks realize that it’s truly a race,” said Cummings, who holds the congressional seat Mfume had until he left to lead the NAACP in 1996.

Mark Clack, Mfume’s spokesman, said Cummings’ introduction and his $2,000 contribution signifies where he stands.

‘‘All we need is the ‘e-word,’” Clack said.

Cardin — with the support of Democratic establishment such as U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. — has been successful in locking down Democratic support. Still, the air of inevitability that has surrounded his campaign has dissipated.

Cardin, who said he has always expected the primary to be close, does not plan to go negative in his campaign. ‘‘I’m going to run on my record,” he said after he addressed the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable on Wednesday. Maryland ‘‘needs an experienced senator to know how the system works and can get things done.”

Cardin’s advisers said they will court undecided voters with a heavy advertising blitz. Mfume’s support in the black community — which could account for about 40 percent of the primary vote — is strong, Cardin’s people said, but he will have to appeal to a wider audience to beat Cardin. The advisers also said Mfume’s campaign was hurt by the exit of Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan from the governor’s race, which could depress voter turnout.

Backing from Democratic elected leaders, many of whom have worked with Cardin throughout his 40-year career in Washington and Annapolis, may have alienated some in the African-American community and that will help Mfume.

‘‘There’s a concern that the Democratic Party came out so strongly and in force to support Congressman Cardin and that there wasn’t a level playing field,” said state Sen. Ulysses Currie, who like Cummings has not made an endorsement.

‘‘There has been somewhat of a backlash because of that,” said Currie (D-Dist. 25) of Forestville in voter-rich Prince George’s County. ‘‘The sand seems to be shifting towards Mfume.”

Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville said his support for Cardin is about Cardin’s record on improving health care, his commitment to balancing the budget and his ability to get things done in Congress.

‘‘This is not about being against Kweisi Mfume,” Hoyer said.

Mfume is an inspirational speaker with a compelling life story, but analysts are unsure whether he can stay competitive.

‘‘There is much more hype with Mfume going to the Senate than there is with Cardin,” said Ben Johnson, a former Clinton aide who attended Jordan’s fund-raiser.

Mfume’s fiery rhetoric is inspiring voters, he said.

‘‘Both Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume are extremely well qualified, but the reason I support Kweisi Mfume is that we need a fighter in the United States Senate,” said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, who ran unsuccessfully in Montgomery’s 8th Congressional District. ‘‘There is a perception that Mfume will not just be a member of the club ... He’s a fighter.”

While the Cardin-Mfume match-up is defining the primary so far, pundits are trying to sort out the impact that Potomac millionaire businessman Joshua B. Rales is going to have. Rales has launched a series of TV ads in Washington and Baltimore this month and has no plans to go off the air until the primary.

‘‘The biggest hurdle for us is name recognition and getting our message out,” said Alyson Chadwick, communications director for Rales. ‘‘These ads help us with both of those.”

The conventional wisdom is that Rales, who like Cardin is Jewish, could pull support away from Cardin in key Democratic jurisdictions such as Montgomery County. The same goes for former Baltimore county executive Dennis F. Rasmussen who comes from Cardin’s home base. American University history professor Allan J. Lichtman — while polling in the single digits along with Rales and Rasmussen — is also seen as a drag on Cardin’s support.

‘‘I think this race is less about Mfume’s momentum than what is going to be the impact of Rales being up on television,” said Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report in Washington. ‘‘Mfume’s base is solid and is not going to swing wildly up or down. Rales’ numbers will increase, but the question is, how will that impact Cardin?”

Mfume’s base may be solid, Gonzales said, but he may be bumping into his ‘‘ceiling” of support compared to Cardin, who has lots of cash to launch his own TV campaign in the final weeks before the primary.

Cardin said Rales, a former Republican, ‘‘has to be taken seriously because of the money he is spending, but other than that he doesn’t have the record or appeal that will resonate.”

Aides to Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the likely Republican nominee, have been talking up an Mfume-Steele match-up. National Republicans say Mfume’s rough-and-tumble youth could be an opposition researcher’s dream, but Steele said Thursday that he is ready to take on anyone.

‘‘I’ll be waiting in the school yard for the winner,” Steele said, predicting that voters will side with his campaign because Democrats will run ‘‘a campaign of fear, a campaign of lies and a campaign of distortion.”

Steele’s ties to President Bush, whose popularity is low in Maryland, have been the focus of relentless Democratic attacks.

Steele said he wants to use his ties to the White House to bring more federal jobs to Prince George’s County and Baltimore.

‘‘How is that a bad thing?” he asked.