Pugh leads race for Baltimore mayor

With Baltimore’s Democratic mayoral primary taking place next Tuesday, the most recent poll shows State Senator Catherine Pugh extending her lead over former mayor Sheila Dixon.

In a primarily Democratic city such as Baltimore, where the last Republican mayor was elected in 1963, the general election is considered a formality.

Pugh is in the lead with support from 31 percent of likely voters, according to the most recent poll commissioned by The Baltimore Sun/University of Baltimore. The poll has a 4.9 percent margin of error and sampled 400 likely Democratic voters. Dixon is runner-up with 21 percent and lawyer Elizabeth Embry trails at nine percent.

Businessman David L. Warnock polled at seven percent and Councilman Carl Stokes polled at five percent.

Councilman Nick Mosby also received five percent of the poll. However, he dropped out of the race on April 13, giving his support to Pugh, which could push her to victory next week.

Prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, as well as the rest of the crowded Democratic field, polled at less than one percent each.

With early voting having started last Thursday, a record number of people casted their ballots on the first day. Four days into early voting, nearly 12,000 people across Baltimore had cast their ballots.

The high turnout is attributed to this year’s competitive mayoral election and the concurrent Democratic and Republican primaries for the Presidential election.

This year’s mayoral election is also breaking previous fund-raising totals, as the leading seven Democrats running for mayor have spent more than $5.6 million. In the 2011 campaign, the top candidates spent $3.3 million.

As of last Friday, Pugh spent $1.1 million and still has about $200,000 available. Dixon has spent more than $850,000 and Embry has spent $400,000.

The Political Action Committee (PAC), Clean Slate Baltimore, has spent $223,000 on television ads supporting Pugh and criticizing Dixon. It has been a focus of the race’s current controversy, with Dixon’s campaign filing a complaint with the State Board of Elections earlier this month. The PAC was accused of not disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.

The PAC was fined $55,000 for violating campaign finance laws on Tuesday, April 19.

Both Pugh and Dixon have accused each other of foul play and voter intimidation. Each candidate’s campaign has called for state authorities to investigate.

The Pugh campaign has accused Dixon’s campaign of suppressing voters. Dixon has accused Pugh’s campaign of “buying votes.” According to a Baltimore Sun report last Saturday, Pugh recruited potential election day staffers by offering free lunches and rides to early-voting sites.

Embry and Mckesson have also criticized Pugh’s campaign tactics, accusing her of offering jobs and food for votes. Embry has also attacked Dixon, reminding voters of how she was forced from office in 2010.

Pugh has denied these allegations, citing the distance that campaign workers are from their polling stations and length of the recruiting process as reasons why lunch was provided.

Even with the recent campaign controversy, Pugh is the front-runner with her lead in the polls and her accumulation of endorsements. Twelve lawmakers recently endorsed her on Wednesday.

Polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26 and close at 8 p.m.