By AFRO Staff
The 2020 race for Baltimore City Council President offered some formidable candidates and fresh perspectives on the phalanx of challenges we face as a city.
Councilman Leon Pinkett, who represents the 7th District, is a thoughtful measured leader serving West Baltimore. During the recent debate sponsored by the NAACP and the AFRO, Pinkett’s approach to issues ranging from police corruption to inequity in the city’s distribution of development dollars, all seemed plausible. And he never seems prone to hyperbole.
Quite frankly, he exudes a measure of decency that is a breath of fresh air in the current rancorous and hyper partisan political discourse.
Nick Mosby has shown strong leadership in the Baltimore
City Council as well as the House of Delegates in Annapolis. (Courtesy Photo/Facebook)
Baltimore City Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, who represents District 13, has built up a formidable East Baltimore base of support since she was elected in 2016. One of the first pieces of legislation she introduced on the Council was a bill that would require all top officials in Baltimore government to live in the city. She recently tackled another important issue when she worked to eliminate marijuana testing for many Baltimore City jobs, a policy that eliminates many qualified applicants. In just a short time on the Council she has already provided strong leadership for the 13th District and the entire city.
Former Baltimore City Councilman and educator Carl Stokes has been a fixture in Baltimore leadership for decades. He has been a businessman, a member of the Baltimore City Council, a member of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners and the COO of the Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy. And Stokes’ sometimes fiery approach as a member of the Council, specifically his position on the distribution of TIF’s for the Port Covington Development project was welcome by many.
Baltimore City Delegate Nick Mosby has shown leadership both on the Baltimore City Council and in the House of Delegates in Annapolis. On the Council, Mosby’s most notable accomplishment was his passing of the “Ban the Box” legislation, which removed the check box that asks if job applicants have a criminal record. Baltimore’s version of ban the box authored by Mosby is one of the most progressive in the country. As a member of the House of Delegates, Mosby has been front and center in the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing Gov. Larry Hogan to release information categorized by race, of those who have been stricken by the virus and those who have died. Many argue the information will be of great value in addressing the nation’s vast health disparities based on race.
And Mosby literally put himself on the line marching through the streets of Baltimore appealing for calm as parts of the city burned in 2015. Many remember his much publicized televised confrontation with a reporter who seemed bent on bashing Baltimore in the midst of the Uprising.
Mosby has exhibited a profound commitment to the most disenfranchised communities of the city, many of them residing in the 40th District that he serves. The AFRO believes the time is now for Mosby’s leadership in the chair of the city’s second highest office.