The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A13

THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2015 THE BALTIMORE SUN 13 Sheila Dixon is rtinning for mayor Blake as a possible Senate candidate," said Joe Cluster, the group's director. "Now she's resigned to defending her mayorship. Her lack of action during the riots could be seen as something that has ruined her political future and people are taking advantage of it." Councilman Robert W. Curran said Dixon will be a formidable opponent for Rawlings-Blake, but did not say whom he might support. "Obviously she's won citywide elections," Curran said of Dixon, adding, "I don't know how the dynamic would change between now and the first of the year." Rawlings-Blake became mayor in 2010 when Dixon resigned and was elected to a full term the following year.

Voters agreed in 2012 to move the next election to 2016 to align the contest with the presidential race, giving Rawlings-Blake a five-year term. Other well-known Democrats have indicated an interest in the mayor's position, which pays $163,000 a year. It's unclear which Republicans may join the race. State Sen. Catherine E.

Pugh, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, Councilmen Nick Mosby and Carl Stokes, and state Del. Jill P. Carter are among those who have not ruled out a run. Councilman Brandon M.

Scott, vice chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said he's considering running for mayor or seeking re-election to his council seat. According to online election records, Mack Clifton is the only person who has filed as a mayoral candidate. Rawlings-Blake reported in January that she had more than $365,000 in the bank for her re-election campaign. A campaign finance report Dixon filed in March shows she has nearly $78,000 on hand. Dixon, a mother of two and a black belt in karate, was first elected to the City Council in 1987.

In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to become City Council president, the same year that Martin O'Malley became mayor. The two ran for re-election as "partners in progress." According to her campaign website, Dixon worked to create a "cleaner, greener, healthier, and safer Baltimore." She said she established the gun offender registry, a single stream recycling program and the Charm City Circulator. Dixon's criminal baggage and her political ties to O'Malley's zero-tolerance policing strategy are issues likely to come up during the campaign. Rawlings-Blake and O'Malley publicly disagreed over his approach, which many have blamed for the existing tension between some communities and police. During Rawlings-Blake's administration, homicides declined to a two-decade low in 201L even as arrests plummeted.

Dixon will have to answer for those zero-tolerance policies, said the Rev. Gregory B. Perldns, pastor of St. Paul Community Baptist Church. Perldns is also concerned about Dixon's conviction.

"We all make mistakes, but that whole situation could have been avoided," Perkins said. "The cards were given for poor children and their families." He said that "at the present" he is supporting Rawlings-Blake. "Don't take that as an endorsement," he added. "I've worked with both Dixon and the mayor. It's a very difficult job.

I will work with whomever becomes mayor." Baltimore Sun reporters Luke Broadwater and Jessica Anderson contributed to this article. ywengerbaltsun.com twitter.comyvonnewenger I XO From page 1 Donald F. Norris, director of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Still, Norris and others said Dixon would have to overcome voters' questions about her conviction to unseat Rawlings-Blake. Dixon, 6L did not address the issue in the campaign announcement, made on her Facebook page with a link to a campaign website.

"I believe I have the leadership skills and experience to bring citizens across the city together to create a safer city that is also cleaner, greener and healthier than we are today," she wrote. "Together we can reclaim, revive and rebuild Baltimore." Later, she said in an interview, "I have a lot to offer the city," but declined to talk at length about her campaign. Dixon, who became mayor in 2007, resigned from office in January 2010 after she was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of stealing gift cards intended for the needy. She completed probation about two years ago, which made her eligible to run for public office again. After her conviction, she agreed to leave office, perform 500 hours of community service and give $45,000 to charity.

She received probation and was allowed to keep her pension, worth $83,000. Later, she was charged with violating her probation after falling behind on the charitable payments. The probation was terminated after she made the full donations as promised. Rawlings-Blake, 45, immediately tried to contrast her tenure with Dixon's. "I think we need someone who has that track record of progress," the mayor said in an interview.

She said that when she succeeded Dixon, she inherited a large budget deficit and a troubled pension system. As mayor, Rawlings-Blake said, she cut the structural deficit in half, and noted that the city has its highest bond rating in years. Under her leadership, the city has opened new recreation centers and has embarked on a billion-dollar school construction program, she added. "I look forward to running an aggressive campaign that clearly lays out the choice between where Baltimore was when I took office, and how far we have come under my leadership," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement "We are constructing the first new schools in a generation and the first new recreation centers in a decade." Rawlings-Blake and Dixon were long political allies, and have often carved out the same stances on issues. Dixon's inaugural address even paid homage to Rawlings-Blake and her late father, Howard "Pete" Rawlings, a longtime state delegate.

But by 201L Dixon advised candidates who opposed Rawlings-Blake's election. Political pundits noted that other elected officials have rebounded from legal troubles, including the late Marion Barry, who was re-elected as Washington's mayor after serving six months in prison for possession of cocaine. Washington City Councilwoman Anita Bonds, who worked with Barry, said that "all politicians can rebound if they have strong connections to the community." She said Dixon may have a harder time than Barry because his issues were related to personal failings, not questions about handling money. But, she said, voters believe in forgiveness. "As humans, we all understand we should be given a second chance." Norris said stories of politicians reentering public life after legal troubles are KARL MERTON FERRONBALTIMORE SUN Embattled Mayor Sheila Dixon announces at City Hall that she is resigning her post in January 2010 after her conviction on a misdemeanor charge.

"I believe I have the leadership skills and experience to bring citizens across the city together to create a safer city that is also cleaner, greener and healthier Sheila Dixon Rawlings-Blake will likely focus attention on Dixon's conviction, said Todd Eberly, an associate political science professor at St. Mary's College. He said that message will resonate with many struggling city residents. "She was convicted for putting her interests above those folks in her community," Eberly said. "Certainly if you're Rawlings-Blake, you're absolutely going to be bringing it up over and over again.

'How can we trust Still, Dixon has a strong chance, Eberly said, adding, "Americans love an underdog." The Rev. Harold A. Carter pastor of New Shiloh Baptist Church in West Baltimore, expressed surprise when he heard Dixon's announcement. But he noted that she received a rousing reception during Gray's April 27 funeral service at his church. When Dixon's name was acknowledged as one of the many current and former officials at the funeral, the response was "electric," Carter said.

"It brought about some tension because it happened in front of our mayor," Carter said. "For those who were in the service it suggests there was some sense of forgiveness, if nothing else." The Maryland Democratic Party declined to comment on Dixon's announcement The state's Republican Party saw the challenge as a sign of Rawlings-Blake's vulnerability after the recent rioting. "It's interesting because a couple months ago people were talking about Rawlings- "as American as apple pie." He noted turn-of-the-20th-century Boston mayor James Michael Curley, who won reelection from a prison cell. In Maryland, former Gov. Marvin Man-del was convicted in 1977 of mail fraud and racketeering.

President Ronald Reagan commuted his sentence in 198L the conviction was later overturned and he returned to political life, serving on the state university system's Board of Regents. Matthew Crenson, political science professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins University, said voters are not likely to overlook Dixon's past. "Everyone else who runs will be bringing it up," he said. "She needs to get in front of her record, issue an apology, a recognition that it was wrong and that she has suffered her punishment" World's largest shipping line renews service to Baltimore port BILL MCALLENFOR THE BALTIMORE SUN The Maryland Port Administration estimates that Maersk, the world's largest shipping line, will bring an added 31,000 container units to the port of Baltimore per year. larger container ships.

In 2013, Maersk entered a partnership with Mediterranean Shipping Co. that saw its cargo start to return to Baltimore, where MSC is the largest carrier. Since Maersk left, Baltimore has attained the nation's No. 1 ranking in several trade categories, including its handling of cars and farm machinery and imports of sugar and aluminum. But until recently its share of the lucrative container market has lagged, and it now ranks 13th in the category among U.S.

ports. White said the new Maersk deal will not move Baltimore far up the list immediately, though it could improve in 2016 and 2017. "When you're dealing with containers, you creep your way up the list," White said. Rutherford and Rahn presented the deal as an example of how Hogan has made Maryland "open for business." However, the port's efforts to lure Maersk back were built largely on initiatives of past leaders. Crucial to the new container business is the public-private partnership, negotiated under Gov.

Martin O'Malley, that expanded Seagirt without having to depend on an estimated $650 million from the state's then-depleted Transportation Trust Fund. And Bentley recalled that in 1998 she secured money in Congress to dredge the Chesapeake Bay channel to the 50-foot depth needed by today's giant ships. "Your big ships are going to be coming from China to the U.S., and Baltimore is ready because I got it through," she said. Rawlings-Blake, who came directly from an event to protest Hogan's cancellation of the $2.9 billion Red Line transit project, listened to remarks by representatives of his administration. When she spoke, her praise of Baltimore's resilience appeared to carry a double meaning.

"We might have been down, but we're not out," she said, declining to answer questions afterward. michael.dresserbaltsun.com PORT, From page 1 15 percent of global container shipments. Maersk ships once called at Baltimore port terminals more than 120 times a year, but the line's departure in the late 1990s marked an end to the port's aspirations to be a major container shipping center as rivals New York and Norfolk grew. White said the port wants to recapture more of the line's business. "We view this as the first step in getting Maersk back," he said.

"We're hoping to get it all back. We want global services coming through Maryland." "This is a homecoming to us," said David Zimmerman, Maersk's vice president for North American sales. "We're delighted to be back." The agreement with Maersk represents a takeaway of business from rival ports, White said. "We know that other ports in close proximity are having congestion problems," the port director said. "They want that ship moving.

We can turn a ship quicker than any port in the U.S." The port, which bears the name of former Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, was recognized recently by the Journal of Commerce as the nation's most efficient. Maersk's return also reflects changes in the shipping trade since the line left Baltimore, White said. Container ships are much larger now, carrying three to four times as many containers, making it more economical to make the run up the Chesapeake Bay to unload in a port closer to consumers. "Now the economy of scale has changed completely," he said.

That trend would continue, White said, with the expected opening of a widened Panama Canal, which will bring more supersize cargo ships from Asia to the East Coast With 50-foot deep channels, Baltimore is one of the few ports on the East Coast that can accommodate them. Maersk's ties with Baltimore date to 1928, but the relationship has been tumultuous in recent decades. In 199L in what then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer called "a historic day for the port of Baltimore," the state and the Danish company signed a 10-year agreement that was then the longest lease for any shipping line in the port's history. The contract came when the Baltimore port was struggling to compete with Norfolk, New York and other rivals, but hopes that Maersk would spur a revital-ization were dashed within a few years.

In the mid-1990s, Maersk began cutting back its more than 120 annual calls in Baltimore, prompted in part by the port's 8y2-hour distance from the open sea In January 1995, Maersk consolidated its South American service in Norfolk, cutting its Baltimore traffic by 25 percent Maersk reinstated that service a few months later, but a pattern of here-today, gone-tomorrow announcements was set in motion that prevailed for years. After Maersk forged an alliance with Sea-Land Service Inc. in 1996, the shipping line suspended the South American service again. Later that year, it canceled its runs from Baltimore to the Middle East and India The moves left Baltimore with 40 Maersk calls ayear, and port officials shifted to a strategy that de-emphasized the container business in favor of cargoes such as paper products, construction machinery and automobiles, in which it has become a dominant player in recent decades. The port and Maersk renegotiated their contract in 1997, agreeing to a schedule of about 30 calls a year.

Even that reduced business soon petered out. But Maryland's courtship of Maersk continued. Maryland officials put together an economic package worth hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to persuade Maersk to locate a giant cargo terminal at the Dundalk Marine Terminal. Hopes ran high after the shipping line rejected New York's initial offer. But in the end, Baltimore's promise of a deeper channel and lower labor costs could not beat its rival's proximity to the nation's largest consumer market Baltimore port officials renewed their interest in luring Maersk back after forming a public-private partnership with Ports America Chesapeake in 2009 to deepen Seagirt's berths to accommodate.