Landers blasts The Sun, says race isn't over yet
Sun colleague Ed Gunts reports:
Baltimore mayoral challenger Joseph T. “Jody” Landers III urged city voters to go the polls on Tuesday and not be misled by “political commentators and pundits” -- including those at The Baltimore Sun -- who he said were predicting the outcome of the primary election before ballots have been cast.
“The point I want to get across today, in the strongest language possible, is that this election is not over,” Landers said at a news conference Monday morning at his Key Highway campaign headquarters. “The citizens have yet to register their votes ... Each and every vote counts.”
Landers, one of six candidates for mayor in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election, said he called the news conference because he wanted to call attention to “negative influences” he believes are affecting the race.
He warned that media reports that suggest that the mayor’s race is a “fait accompli” and state that incumbent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has a commanding lead in the polls will only discourage voter turnout.
Rawlings-Blake finished first in a Sun Poll of likely Democratic voters last month with the support of 50 percent of respondents. State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh came in second with 12 percent. Landers finished tied for fourth with 5 percent.
“The media and the political commentators and pundits are doing the citizens of Baltimore a disservice, by predicting the outcome of the race before the voters have gone to the polls,” he said. “The actual election takes place tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13th. It is clear to me that the media’s characterization of this race as a fait accompli just discourages voters from expressing themselves at the ballot box.”
Landers said people tend to lose interest in an election if they think their vote doesn’t matter, and he doesn’t want people to stay away from the polls on Tuesday.
“When someone tells you the outcome of a sporting event or how the plot of a movie ends, most of us lose our motivation to watch the game or the film,” he said. “When the political commentators and prognosticators make pronouncements about the outcome of an election before the election day, it has the same effect. … No one should tell us, or make us believe that it isn’t worth the bother, or that it is a done deal. From the voters’ perspective, the only poll that means anything is the poll taken on Election Day in the voting booth”
Landers also said he was troubled by The Baltimore Sun’s endorsement process and the makeup of the Sun’s editorial board. He said he was granted an interview with the editorial board, which he was told “consisted of five writers and managers at The Sun”. After reading on Friday that the board endorsed Rawlings-Blake, he said, he asked how many of the editorial board members live in Baltimore City and was told “currently two of the five, though all of us have at one time or another.”
Landers said it occurred to him that the five member board was not seeing or experiencing the city from the same perspective that he does as a life long resident.
“As a citizen, I am incensed and amazed by the fact that the editorial group is attempting to influence city voters, when a majority of the editorial board does not even live in Baltimore City,” Landers said. “For a majority of the editorial board, the endorsement process is nothing more than an academic exercise, since they do not live in the city and do not have to live with the consequences of their recommendations one way or the other.”
Landers said he also believes the media in general has been manipulative and duplicitous in its campaign coverage, by making the incumbent “the lead in many stories” but giving less exposure to her competitors.
“I think the citizens of Baltimore are smart enough to know that when the media shows up at a mayoral press conference and skips a candidate press conference, it is manipulative,” he sad.
Landers is one of five Democratic challengers to Rawlings-Blake. The others are Clerk of Court Frank M. Conaway Sr., Pugh, former city planning director Otis Rolley and activist Wilton Wilson.
Landers said he was working to encourage city residents to vote Monday by waving to traffic in the morning and knocking on doors in the afternoon.
City polls will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Comments
The Sun is a blind supporter of MOM so its endorsement of SRB is a given.
SRB wins and the groundswell for new taxes and fes shall continue in 2012, as per the norm for MOM and his extended political family of puppets.
Posted by: John | September 12, 2011 1:09 PM
We are both planning to vote for Jodie Landers. mWe hope many others will vote for him as well.
Posted by: Woodie | September 12, 2011 1:11 PM
If the citizens of B. City know whats good for them they will vote for Jody Landers, otherwise it will be same old, same old and you get what you deserve.
Posted by: chuck | September 12, 2011 1:56 PM
Jody should have run when Don was Mayor he had his chance 1975
Posted by: Anonymous | September 12, 2011 2:17 PM
I was also disappointed in the Sun's endorsements- they didn't seem very well thought out and just kind of well this person hasn't screwed up too badly.... This was for both the mayoral and city council seats. It didn't seem the board had really given it much thought. I'm worried that's the case for lots of Baltimoreans, people should care- it's important!
Posted by: eh | September 12, 2011 2:27 PM
I beleive in this election the media has played a factor more impotrant than in those of the past. It all started with the resignation of Mayor Dixon in 2010. Ever since then SRB has grabbed the spot light by the neck and forced it to shine on her. Just look at how many Non Campaign appearances she (SRB) has made on the news. Calling a press conferance after an earthquake REALLY!!!
Posted by: Kentaro | September 12, 2011 2:29 PM
This reporting smacks of the Ehrlich "robocalls" during the last election.
Posted by: pgp | September 12, 2011 2:38 PM
Maybe he should be trying to win votes on his own merits, instead of whining about the referees. It's not the Sun's fault that she's beating him 50 to 5.
Posted by: Henry Plantagenet | September 12, 2011 2:39 PM
posted by pgp,
Are you employed by the Sun Or the local gov. ?. Maybe you should look at Mr. Landers answers to the City's issues. Most of the challengers held or are currently holding major positions in the government. If hey haven"t done anything yet, what makes you think that will change. That is what Baltimore needs now is CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE.
Posted by: David Miller | September 12, 2011 3:25 PM
Landers hopes he can do what O'Malley did in 1999. O'Malley came out of nowhere to become Mayor. I think it will be hard to anyone to unseat Rawlings Blake when the number one news source in Baltimore (Baltimore Sun) endorses her.
Posted by: Method@Madness | September 12, 2011 3:51 PM
"Landers Blasts Reality, Says 'I'm Going To Win'"
Posted by: Eric | September 12, 2011 3:57 PM
I initially hadn't planned on voting because of the sad sack of candidates running, but I certainly will cast a vote for Landers because anything else will be same ol' same ol...
Posted by: Terry | September 12, 2011 4:23 PM
Landers was the only candidate to speak to the real problems of this dying city. Any one can talk about schools, children. crime etc. but only Landers seems to taking action in our basic problems.
Posted by: verity | September 12, 2011 6:12 PM
How dare the Baltimore Sun endource anyone! It's their job to report the positions of the candidates and allow the votes to make an informed decision, not to influence the vote. Then again, this is the newspaper selling 6 month subscriptions on Groupon for $10 so I guess their worth is not what it once was.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 12, 2011 6:25 PM
All of Mr. Landers' past actions have caught up with him but because he is so self- centered he doesn't realize it. It's always all about Jody. Remember 1982 Jody? What goes around comes around.
Posted by: George Falter | September 12, 2011 11:04 PM