Black leaders endorse Cardin
2006-09-20
Source: Baltimore Sun
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rss feedRep. Benjamin L. Cardin was endorsed by several of Baltimore's most influential black politicians yesterday - officials who had backed his rival in the Democratic primary for Senate - during an event designed to communicate his embrace by the city's African-American leaders.
But one key figure was missing: former NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume, whom Cardin defeated in Tuesday's contest.
"We'll be together very shortly," Cardin said after the midday rally in front of City Hall, referring to Mfume. "He would've been here today but for a scheduling conflict."
That photograph of Cardin and Mfume - the two of them locking arms and smiling - is an image Cardin could use to launch him into the general election against Republican Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele. It would do much to erase lingering questions about the unity of black and white Democrats as they try to defeat Steele, the state's highest-ranking African American official.
In Mfume's absence, however, a handful of his high-profile backers swooned over Cardin, an effort to convey the appearance of party unity six days after Cardin edged Mfume by about 19,000 votes out of nearly a half-million cast.
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