Source: Drew Angerer / Getty
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced today that she will not seek re-election, saying a political campaign would take time away from the city’s ability to cope with a police brutality scandal.
“The last thing I want is for every one of the decisions I make … to be questioned in the context of a political campaign,” she told reporters.
“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,” Rawlings-Blake said at a City Hall news conference.
Gray’s death sparked outrage and days of massive protests, including some that turned violent. Buildings went up in flames, and vandalism and looting devastated businesses — despite the Gray family’s pleas for peace.
“The city is in a very critical time right now,” Rawlings-Blake said. “We working very hard to reform the police department … We have to get our city through six separate trials that will be held here in Baltimore.”
The mayor’s public affairs chief, Kevin Harris, told media earlier Friday that Rawlings-Blake “wants to put governing over campaigning and continue leading the city through our recovery efforts.”
Rawlings-Blake took office in 2010 when the former mayor, Sheila Dixon, was convicted of embezzlement and resigned. She won a full term of her own in 2011 and has presided over a city that seemed to be enjoying an economic resurgence.
Seethe full press conference here:
