Baltimore mayor won’t seek re-election

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, beleaguered by the death of Freddie Gray and the protests and rioting that followed, announced Friday she won’t seek re-election.

She said she is stepping out of the race to focus on “work to move our city forward,” and not out of any concern she might not win the race against a growing field of challengers.

“It was a very difficult decision, but I knew I needed to spend time, the remaining 15 months of my term, focused on the city’s future and not my own,” she said at a news conference at City Hall.

Rawlings-Blake, 45, has no plans to seek another office. She briefed her Cabinet and staff on the decision this morning.

She spent recent months ramping up her campaign by building a field organization in the city, hosting fundraisers and courting voters with events such as “Mondays with the Mayor” at local bars and restaurants. But sources familiar with her decision said she felt it would be inappropriate to ask donors for money while the city copes with the aftermath of the April riots.

City leaders and police have meanwhile been readying for the possibility or more unrest. The first trial in the Gray case is scheduled for Oct. 13, though that date could change, and a judge ruled Thursday the cases would move forward in Baltimore courts. The officers involved face charges ranging from second-degree murder to assault and misconduct in office.

The mayor’s decision also comes days after her administration agreed to pay Gray’s family $6.4 million in a settlement that accepted all civil liability in his death but did not acknowledge any wrongdoing by police.

The mayor abandons her re-election campaign as the field of Democratic challengers in the April primary grows, including former Mayor Sheila Dixon, state Sen. Catherine Pugh and City Councilman Carl Stokes.

But Rawlings-Blake said she was not daunted by the competition.

“I knew this would be a very hotly contested campaign, and I haven’t lost a campaign since middle school,” she said. “It’s not that I didn’t think I could win. I just had to ask myself the question, ‘At what cost?’”

Dixon commended Rawlings-Blake for her 20-year career in public office. “She and her family have made many sacrifices and I think she has earned the right to pursue other goals,” Dixon said.

City Councilman Nick Mosby, who is considering a run for mayor, also thanked Rawlings-Blake for her service.

“Baltimore needs to move in new direction, past the scandals, the unrest, and the persistent poverty that has held us back,” he said. “We need new leadership and new energy that can grow our economy, bring peace to our neighborhoods, and fix our broken government.”

While Rawlings-Blake has been heralded as a fiscal hawk, she has faced frequent criticism that she’s aloof. Her leadership was challenged during the rioting, and some political observers questioned whether she could recover.

Rawlings-Blake ascended to the city’s highest elected office in February 2010 when Dixon resigned amid a corruption scandal. She’s been a political fixture in the city since 1995, when she became the youngest person ever elected to the City Council.

She served on the council for 15 years, including three as the president.

During her tenure, unemployment has dropped from 12.1 percent to 8.1 percent and the city added about 12,000 jobs. She shepherded a plan to secure $1 billion for new school construction and opened the city’s first new recreation center in a decade.

Sources say she’s also leaving office to spend more time with her 11-year-old daughter, Sophia, in the years before she heads to high school. Rawlings-Blake lives in the city’s Coldspring neighborhood in North Baltimore with her husband, Kent.

By the time she leaves City Hall, Rawlings-Blake will have served seven years in the job, about the same amount of time as Martin O’Malley. He had been at the helm for less than two full terms when he left the city to become governor.

Rawlings-Blake is expected to also spend the coming months pushing her plan to finance the construction of more rec centers by selling some of the city’s parking garages, among other initiatives.

Rawlings-Blake grew up in politics as the daughter of the late Del. Howard P. Rawlings. She is a graduate of Western High School and went on to earn a political science degree at Oberlin College in Ohio and a law degree from the University of Maryland.

She worked as an attorney with the Baltimore Office of the Public Defender from 1998 to 2006.

Baltimore Sun reporter Scott Dance contributed to this article.