City Council President Brandon Scott took a small lead over former Mayor Sheila Dixon in the mayor’s race following two rounds of ballot counting over the weekend.
After the initial count released late Tuesday evening, Dixon was in the lead with 24,278 votes to Scott’s 19,685 votes. But the council president has closed the gap with each batch of results released since then.
On Sunday evening, Scott jumped out in front by 576 votes, or 0.3 percent. The next closest contender after Dixon is former Treasury Department official Mary Miller, who has 21,002 votes, or 15.5 percent.
“I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again: I’m completely humbled by your support,” Scott said in a release late Sunday night. “We believed building a better city government and coalition that represented Baltimore was possible.”
Rounding out the top of the field are former Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah (11.4 percent), Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young (6.4 percent) and former Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith (5.9 percent).
Elsewhere in the Democratic primary, Del. Nick Mosby, a former councilman representing District 7, appears poised to win the nomination for the city council presidency. Thirteenth District Councilwoman Shannon Sneed trails by 12 points, and former Councilman Carl Stokes, a late entrant in the race, is behind by 19 points.
In the comptroller’s race, Fourth District Councilman Bill Henry has maintained his lead against Joan Pratt, a six-term incumbent.
Many of the council races appear to be settled. Incumbents Zeke Cohen (District 1), Danielle McCray (District 2), Ryan Dorsey (District 3), Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer (District 5), Sharon Green Middleton (District 6), Kristerfer Burnett (District 8) and John T. Bullock (District 9) all have considerable leads. Eric Costello (District 11) ran unopposed.
In the race to replace Edward Reisinger, who is retiring, in District 10, healthcare consultant and Democratic Central Committee member Phylicia Porter leads by 719 votes, or almost 15 percent, over her next closest challenger in the nine-candidate field.
Reisinger endorsed Porter’s campaign last August.
In the election to fill Sneed’s seat in District 13, Antonio “Tony” Glover, a city bureaucrat and member of the Baltimore City State Central Committee, leads the field of seven candidates by almost 9 percent.
Over in District 7, the seat previously held by Leon Pinkett III, who made a run for council president, Baltimore City Public Schools staffer and lawyer James Torrence holds a nearly 13-point edge.
Odette Ramos cruised to victory in District 14, replacing longtime Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who is retiring after more than three decades on the council.
She endorsed Ramos to be her successor in September.
A few contests are tighter.
Robert Stokes Sr. (District 12) holds a 299-vote lead over attorney Phillip Westry, the only one of five challengers within striking distance.
And in the race to fill Henry’s District 4 seat, only 231 votes separate leader Mark Conway, a former deputy director of CitiStat, from Logan Endow, who has worked in Liberia to treat Ebola virus.
Per The Sun‘s Emily Opilio, Baltimore City Elections Board director Armstead Jones said this morning the agency has received 155,011 ballots and counted 143,678 so far, leaving a little more than 11,000 left to be tabulated.
