Rawlings-Blake to skip Empowerment Temple forum
Six candidates vying to be Baltimore's next mayor will speak at a forum at one of the city's largest churches Tuesday night-- but Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will not be participating, a campaign spokeswoman said.
Organizers of the forum at the Empowerment Temple said that Rawlings-Blake's campaign had told them Sunday that she would be participating, but campaign spokeswoman Keiana Page said another engagement prevented Rawlings-Blake from attending.
Candidates State Sen. Catherine Pugh, former city planning director Otis Rolley, former city councilman Joseph T. "Jody" Landers, clerk of courts Frank M. Conaway Sr., nurse Wilton Wilson and Vicki Harding-- the lone Republican on the panel-- are expected to attend, a church spokeswoman said.
Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor and Republican Party chair, is slated to moderate the event along with radio host Marc Steiner.
Nicole Kirby, a church spokeswoman who is organizing the forum, said she was surprised to hear that Rawlings-Blake would not be joining the other candidates.
The campaign "called Sunday to say she would be in attendance," said Kirby. "The mayor was the last one to confirm."
Update: Page forwarded an email that Rawlings-Blake's campaign manager had sent Kirby last week, saying that the mayor would not be able to attend.
More than 2,000 people are expected to view the forum, she said. More than 8,000 people are members of the Northwest Baltimore mega-church, she said.
The church has promoted the event -- and Rawlings-Blake's attendance -- in radio ads and emails, she said.
But Page, the campaign spokeswoman, said that Rawlings-Blake would not be able to come due to her "full schedule."
"The mayor is the incumbent. She has a very busy schedule," she said. "She manages the city. She doesn't have the luxury the other candidates have" to attend such events.
Rawlings-Blake announced last month that she would join in four candidate debates, including a forum this Thursday about disabilities.
Page said that Rawlings-Blake would also be unable to join in a debate next week hosted by the Safe and Sound Campaign, which advocates for children and teens.
Comments
How can you even consider voting for this woman? She's been in government for 15 years and won't defend her record in public. She deserves no votes at all if this is how she respects the process.
Posted by: G. Frangler | August 1, 2011 9:20 PM
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will not show up at any of these mayoral candidate forums because she is a terrible public speaker. I know this for a fact because I witnessed her speak for 15 minutes at my neighborhood association's meeting, last March, where she could not manage to make eye contact with her audience during her entire speech. She repeatedly stared at a piece of paper that contained her talking points.
Without her notes and handlers, SRB is as incompetent as Frank Conaway. The more she has to talk during this campaign, the better her chances are of losing. The Sun and the other local media outlets need to do their jobs and question her about her reluctance to participate in these forums.
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford | August 1, 2011 11:23 PM
I'm not surprised at all, she was invited to a forum at my church and never showed, her concerns are not the homeless, drugs or helping the poor, it making our city a better place to die and be robbed or rape by drug addicts who she refuses to help by cutting funding needed to help those asking for it, her answer to crime is more police, whom u can't trust to do the jobs, she is ice queen, cold and stoned face, not a people person and she will not get my vote, she looks like a drag queen...
Posted by: Penny... | August 2, 2011 6:57 AM
I can't say I mind having a mayor that refuses to kiss the ring of the ministers. Their main mission seems to be finding ways to suck more money out of the congregation.
Posted by: Able Baker | August 2, 2011 12:14 PM
Able Baker, I would agree with you if what you said was true, but it's not:
http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/07/07/rawlings-blake%E2%80%99s-endorsement-by-ministerial-alliance-marred-by-confrontation/
Like I said, her goal is to say as little as possible because she is a terrible speaker.
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford | August 2, 2011 1:09 PM