Bob Wallace hopes second mayoral run convinces voters to support a ‘new way, a new day’
The last time Bob Wallace ran for mayor, in 2020, Baltimore faced twin crises of a raging pandemic and a fiscal cliff.
Undaunted by the city’s solid-blue voting patterns, Wallace, until then a lifelong Republican, ran as an independent. Wallace, 67, is running this time as a Democrat. And with less than a month until the May 14 primary, he hopes voters will give him a chance to usher in a “new way and a new day.”
The Cherry Hill-born businessman announced his campaign in October, pledging if elected to take a tough-on-crime approach to reducing quality of life crimes, and to overhaul the school system, starting with firing Superintendent Sonja Santelises. A recent poll for The Baltimore Sun, University of Baltimore, and FOX45 showed Wallace and prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah trailing behind Mayor Brandon Scott and former mayor Sheila Dixon. An equal number of respondents believe the city is moving in the right direction versus the wrong one, which correlated with their support for Dixon or Scott.
Despite his long odds, Wallace is hoping to appeal to voters unhappy with declining but persistent gun violence under Scott’s tenure and those unconvinced Dixon has redeemed herself since an embezzlement conviction forced her from office. He also cited concerns about city schools’ academic performance as a factor for jumping into the race.
“I’ve been disappointed in the performance of the leadership, the political leadership of the city,” Wallace said in a March interview at his Hampden campaign headquarters. “If you talk to anyone in the city … everyone recognizes that we’re going in the wrong direction as a city.”
He hopes his ideas will quash skepticism from voters who may eye his changing voter affiliation with suspicion: “If you had cancer, and I had a cure for cancer, would you care what party I’m from? If I have a solution that will make your life easier, that will increase your quality of life, do you care?”
Those ideas include a pledge to dismantle within his first 90 days the city’s flagship violence intervention Safe Streets program, and to reorient the city into “villages” with central hubs that would offer residents community-specific services. As “the education mayor,” he would also reestablish a “code of conduct” within city schools to promote good behavior, and order police to shut down “open-air drug markets” and enforce anti-loitering laws.
“Young men standing around the corners are preventing the elderly, other people, from going to the stores and from living their lives,” Wallace said. “I believe that the law-abiding people of this city have just as much rights as the perpetrators of crimes.”
He pointed toward Safe Streets’ “tarnished” reputation after FBI agents raided a Belair-Edison site in October as proof the city needs to take a different approach. Prosecutors later dropped an illegal ammunition charge against a Safe Streets worker in January.
“If I’m going to apply a system of interceding [in street-level disputes], I better damn well make sure it’s accountable,” he said. “I can’t just continue to throw money at it and not hold people accountable.”
In a November press conference, Wallace said he would use the “full force of the law” to deter loiterers and clear corners that are considered hot spots for property crime.
“We’re going to use [anti-loitering laws] to make it clear to bad actors who are who are clogging up commerce in these neighborhoods, who are making people feel unsafe, that they know that we’re not going to tolerate that,” he said. “We’re not going to violate the consent decree. We’re not going to violate the law, we can’t do that. But to the degree that I can make them aware this is unacceptable behavior, we will not tolerate it.”
Officials with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which oversees the Safe Streets program, outlined the vetting process for hiring staff during a City Council hearing in March. Applicants are automatically disqualified if they have any past history of sexual offenses, child abuse, or arson. Police also evaluate if candidates are under investigation or involved in open cases.
Wallace is largely self-financing his campaign, which still carries $600,000 of debt from when he last ran in 2020, according to his latest campaign finance report. He lost to Scott in the Nov. 2020 general election despite spending far more on his campaign than either Scott or Republican nominee Shannon Wright.
This time, he’s prepared to continue funding himself, with reliance on small donations, though he acknowledged Dixon and Scott’s war chests, coupled with their support from political action committees, made them “formidable opponents.”
He considered applying for public financing to assist his campaign, but ultimately decided against it, ruling that it was “too constraining.”
“It’s a David and Goliath situation,” Wallace said of the wide gap in institutional support between his campaign and that of Scott and Dixon. “We’re depending upon my own means … I am capable and I am prepared to fund this as much as I need.”
Questions about his official residence have also dogged him since 2020. City law requires that a candidate live in the city for a year before running, which Wallace says he has met since moving to an apartment above his Monument Street office in 2019. City and state property records say the Monument Street address is not a primary address. State property records list his Guilford Road address in Clarkesville, which he owns with his wife, as a primary residence.
A neighbor who lives on the same private road as Wallace’s Clarkesville address declined to answer when a Sun reporter asked him whether the candidate lived there full-time.
Keisha Allen, a community leader in South Baltimore who supports Scott, said doubts about Wallace’s official residency cast a shadow on his campaign and his commitment to representing Baltimore.
“Cherry Hill is a very supportive community,” said Allen of the place where Wallace grew up and announced his 2020 run. “But people don’t see him coming and going. The community activists don’t know him. I have a hard time believing that a Black couple who have raised kids in Howard County would move back to Mount Vernon Place after all these years.”
For his part, Wallace said he lives on Monument Street and would check with the city to correct any records that said otherwise.
“The people born in this city have a decision to make,” he said. “My two opponents are asking the people to give them a second term. People have to decide, do they deserve a second term? I think if they look at the data, and at the options, they will decide no. If that’s the case, then what are their options? I think I provide another option.”
Second in a series of articles about candidates for mayor. Coming Wednesday: Thiru Vignarajah