Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake says all the city’s streets will be plowed by today. And while there have been complaints about the speed of the cleanup, the Democratic candidates running to succeed her have held their fire on how Rawlings-Blake is doing.
The candidates’ twitter feeds and Facebook pages are mostly silent on how the city they want to run is handling snow removal after last weekend’s record-breaking blizzard.
The subject never came up at a candidates’ forum this week.
When asked about it in an interview, candidate David Warnock steered clear of any criticism, instead praising the people of Baltimore for how they have handled themselves.
"So I think the mayor is obviously doing the best job that she can," Warnock said. "And let’s hope for some warm weather."
Todd Eberly, a political science professor at Saint Mary’s College, says the reason the mayor is getting a pass is simple; she’s not on the ballot. The crowded field of candidates can’t capitalize on attacking her, so they focus their fire instead on each other. If the mayor were running for reelection, it would be a different story.
The mayor is usually a favorite target of former Mayor Sheila Dixon. But in this case, Dixon says Rawlings Blake is doing a fair job. Dixon’s main complaint about the plowing is that sometimes the crew makes one narrow path on a two-way street.
"Stay there and clear it away while you have the opportunity," she says.
One thing that’s bugging State Senator and Mayoral candidate Catherine Pugh is the city’s plan to ticket people who haven’t shoveled their sidewalks. She says the city’s legislative delegation sent a letter to the mayor Thursday asking her not to do that.
"This is the largest snowstorm in history, since they’ve been recording snowstorms, so I think everybody deserves some compassion and some consideration," Pugh says.