https://medium.com/@deray/i-am-running-for-mayor-of-baltimore-34b4e214d582#.x4idqs3q7

DeRay Mckesson
I Am Running for Mayor of Baltimore

I love Baltimore. This city has made me the man that I am.
Like an old friend, I’ve seen it at its best and its most challenged. From Ms. Rainey’s second grade class at Rosemont Elementary School to the mixes of K Swift & Miss Tony on 92Q, to the nights at Afram, Shake N Bake and the Inner Harbor, I was raised in the joy and charm of this city.
Like many others, I know this city’s pain. As the child of two now-recovered addicts, I have lived through the impact of addiction. I too have received the call letting me know that another life has fallen victim to the violence of our city. Like so many other residents, I have watched our city deal what seems like an endless series of challenges and setbacks.
Perhaps because I have seen both the impact of addiction and the power of recovery, I hold tight to the notion that our history is not our destiny. That we are, and always will be, more than our pain. What we choose to do today and tomorrow will shape our future and build our reality. It is why I believe so strongly that Baltimore is, and has always been, a city of promise and possibility.
I have come to realize that the traditional pathway to politics, and the traditional politicians who follow these well-worn paths, will not lead us to the transformational change our city needs. Many have accepted that our current political reality is fixed and irreversible — that we must resign ourselves to accept the way that City Hall functions, or the role of money and connections in dictating who runs and wins elections. They have bought into the notion that there is only one road that leads to serve as an elected leader.
It is easy to accept this, because those of us from Baltimore live and experience the failures of traditional politics and pathways to leadership. Too often the elected individuals we put our public trust in, disappoint us. We have lived through lofty promises and vague plans. We have come to expect little and accept less. When we rely on this traditional model of politics we are rewarded with consistent, disappointing results.
In order to achieve the promise of our city and become the Baltimore we know we can become, we must challenge the practices that have not and will not lead to transformation. We must demand more from our leaders and local government.

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At its core, being the Mayor is about having a vision for the city that is both aspirational and grounded in reality. It is about demonstrating the ability to turn intentions into reality and maintaining the fortitude to see our ambitions met with strong implementation.
I am running to be the 50th Mayor of Baltimore in order to usher our city into an era where the government is accountable to its people and is aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves its problems. We can build a Baltimore where more and more people want to live and work, and where everyone can thrive.
It is true that I am a non-traditional candidate — I am not a former Mayor, City Councilman, state legislator, philanthropist or the son of a well-connected family. I am an activist, organizer, former teacher, and district administrator that intimately understands how interwoven our challenges and our solutions are.
I am a son of Baltimore.

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I understand that issues of safety are more expansive than policing, and that to make the city as safe as we want it to be, we will have to address issues related to job development, job access, grade-level reading, transportation, and college readiness, amongst others.
I also understand that transparency is a core pillar of government integrity. We deserve to know where our city services — from housing and sanitation, to schools and police — are doing well and falling short. To this end, we must invest in a broad range of systems and structures of accountability and transparency, including the release of the internal audits of the Baltimore City Public School System along with annual and timely audits of all city agencies.
I am not the silver bullet for the challenges of our city — no one individual is. But together, with the right ideas, the right passion, the right people, we can take this city in a new direction.
In the weeks ahead, I will release a policy platform and a plan for Baltimore that is rooted in these beliefs.
I look forward to earning your vote and working with you to change the trajectory of Baltimore.
If you’d like to volunteer, click here. If you’d like to donate, click here.
Together, we will win.

looks like this could be the agenda that people were accusing DeRay of from jump, no?

that is

alot of people questioned his motives for being the media darling of protestors from the beginning

what happened to campaign zero?

I feel like that launched and nobody cared

grand opening/grand closing

alot of ?s

I think he could have tried another lane TBH.

I guess that negates my first issue

still kinda strange to just jump into a mayoral race with no experience...no?

I mean, SRB had a 20 year public service record before becoming mayor

and if DeRay's campaign zero is any indication

why would his 'plan' for a 'new' Baltimore even be considered viable?

trivial, but did anybody proof read this statement

&
Sheila Dixon is running again

Dude will get a lot of side eyes for this
Me included

I hope he wins so he can lose that damn vest
I'm tired of seeing it
And I'm tired of folks worshipping it

like he is famous on twitter and outside of bmore...
but in town....who?

which is odd in itself...but yeah...folks here vote for who they know or can vouch for


he gonna snatch a couple of the on campus votes................................and that's about it


Sheila gonna pretty much run off on the plug twice

>
>Sheila gonna pretty much run off on the plug twice

on the low with that "corrupt" boyfriend she got in trouble with during her last stint. LOL

I'm voting for Warnock just because! LMAO

i don't know everybody, but I know niggas that know everybody, and nobody knows dude.

For a while I thought he was the small senior dude that was debating on Hard Times at Douglass High

you talking bout the young boy that was debating like "first of all..." snapping his fingers and shit. LOL.

somebody had to tell me they were 2 different people

I don't really know what Dude has done in the city.

I'm sure he could foresee how this would play with the original critique of him capitalizing on the protest movement from a year and a half ago

my issue is

he parlayed that into this zero campaign platform, that to my knowledge, has gone nowhere

in fact

when was the last time BLM was even mentioned in this current political cycle

they seem to have been deleted from the conversation

I mean, they jumped on Bern, cornered HRC...and then poof...they were gone.

good luck to him, as others have said, I'm sure B'More could do worse

I personally would have like to see BLM continue to grow its platform

before surrogates used it to leverage careers...after an entire year and a half.

no we AREN"T hating, we KNOW the city and we are out here. Plus he's up against some well known and experienced people. He's not going to win because the older residents (the ppl who actually VOTE in large numbers) don't know him and want someone with experience. Stephanie got lucky tbh. But Dixon is running again? Mosby and Stokes are running...he has no political office experience. IF nothing else, i think he'd run to be a councilman first but QUIET AS KEPT, people didn't even know he lived in the city. everyone thought he was still in Catonsville/The county/not the city.

that ppl dont' know this native or where he went to school or who his family is.

He went to Catonsville High School, but lived in the city.

They just put out some policing stats a few weeks back

what's he doing with it?

they released a 10 point plan

and publish stats all the time

it's starting to feel like alot of the initial critiques of dude were right

= twitter activist

I mean, he jumped in at Ferguson....that's an entire year and a half

SHEEEEEIIIIIIIIITTTT!

I've been marching longer than that.

what I do find odd, and always have, is his association with BLM

I've been to panel with Sister Pat, Patrisse Cullors, speaking

and the impression I got, is that they were not as interested with fixing the system

as they were with convincing people that this system is broken, and needs to dismantled

so for him to announce a mayoral candidacy feels like a contradiction to BLM tenants, IMO

I've also never seen him with BLM

it's always him and Netta

nobody's ever come out and said he's not BLM, to my knowledge

but they haven't endorsed him either, to my knowledge

it's only on his TV appearances and interviews that BLM is associated with DeRay, to my knowledge.

it just makes sense for Baltimore.

also: Cleveland. and maybe Detroit.

radio spots for him, too.

>also: Cleveland. and maybe Detroit.

Anyone else, regardless of their great potential, is merely wasting time running against Sheila Dixon. These people love her just as DC loved Marion Barry. As soon as she announced that she was jumping in, the hood crowned her again. The incumbent, SRB, decided to not seek re-election as soon as she caught wind that Dixon was jumping into the pool.

I, despite the aloofness that SRB has exhibited at times, believe that she is the best mayor this city has had in all of the years that I have been living here. The woman is not liked very well by the people but she has accomplished a few things and taken some tough stances that should eventually benefit the city's residents.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ci-rawlings-blake-fact-check-20150911-story.html

And her national profile could have helped her continue to lift Baltimore up.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ci-srb-position-20150618-story.html

and didn't/doesn't know how to get along with her female constituency...aka she is one of THOSE Western HS girls

RE: the end lol...in regards to Steph...she fell asleep at the wheel

And I always say, when in convos with some of these city women, that "If that's the only issue that y'all have with her, y'all prolly shouldn't be voting."

People forget the city was on the verge of bankruptcy when SRB assumed the role after Sheila's fall from grace. SRB jumped in and figured out that them pensions had to change. Big decision that she had the balls to make.

I'm anxious to see what Sheila does to help. The national profile SRB has developed could have seriously helped put the ENTIRE city on a better footing. She's still gonna have a national presence though which hopefully bodes well for us city residents.

which is the base that got him in City Council

like Mosby got a lot of our generations support...and Sheila got the other half

but that Morgan/Coppin crowd...idk....
interesting though


OH...and niggas is calling out the 300 man march dude Munir

a degree, but he really needs to get off social media. Let his girl handle it or something.

From the debacle regarding his girl to the latest Under Armour rant, he's losing it.

I live in Panway/Braddish which is in his district. All I see are Sheila Dixon signs.

I hope he shows better but it ain't looking good for anyone not named "Sheila Dixon".

other on Longwood

It's a nice old neighborhood where some folks been around there for over 50 years. I like the community feeling between SOME of the older residents. The young ones though... THEY GOTTA GO!

The Wire was.

Had moved to ATL and got tired of people asking me if B'more was really like that. I lost interest as a result.

So, I have no clue who that character is but I take it that she was modeled after SRB.

But I feel you. I got sick of being asked that question too.

>But I feel you. I got sick of being asked that question too.
>

Don't get it twisted. I used to read The Sun everyday, while living in ATL, just to see pictures of her. LOL

I just don't want her as our mayor after what she did with the gift cards and the improprieties surrounding her relationship with that contractor/developer.

RE: No she won't..a whole lot of folks ain't forgiving those gift cards

that "Sheila Dixon is coming back."

I'd be happy if she doesn't win and stays in retirement collecting that pension that should have been taken from her. However, the prevailing sentiment is that the race is gonna be hers to lose.

Black vote gets split, one White dude emerges (probably Warnock) and squeaks out a win.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-document-baltimore-city-democratic-primary-poll-20160120-htmlstory.html

place (Pugh). It would be very interesting if Dixon doesn't end up with the gig.

As I said above though, I think everyone else is wasting their time jumping in because it appears as an almost certainty that Sheila Dixon is who we will be stuck with.

because he's gonna take some of the votes from her biggest competitors...she's not losing any votes. Very few who planned to vote for her will vote for Deray instead.

It's literally been the same cast of political characters with the same results my entire life - and I'm in my mid 30s. With a largely ambivalent and in some cases, willfully ignorant electorate, it has been easy for Democratic incumbents (and in some cases, whoever carries their last name) to get elected over and over again unless they die. I like what's happening with some younger people entering the race and getting involved politically. Honestly, I didn't even know McKesson was from Baltimore until he mentioned it on Combat Jack. If he's getting involved in city politics, I could see him more as a councilperson or maybe leading a department, but I think his voice in the discourse for mayor could be helpful.

plus...

2nd question from voters to Deray/BLM--
'Where your ass was @ last summer when they was out here playin Contra in real life?'

I'm all for the youth getting involved but I don't trust that nigga aint grow up on Captain Chesapeake and Mondy the Sea Monster lol

>I'm all for the youth getting involved but I don't trust that
>nigga aint grow up on Captain Chesapeake and Mondy the Sea
>Monster lol

IF YOU AIN'T NEVER BEEN TO THE EASTER KIDDIE DISCO AT FESTIVAL HALL, YA CAN'T BE MAYOR!! lol

http://www.elections.state.md.us/elections/2016/primary_candidates/gen_cand_lists_2016_3__by_county_03.html

RE: 21210???da hell....this nigga rich lol ...nahhh...sump'n aint right

I bet when he arrives at his mansion, he's greeted by a Manservant. Giles, then gently removes DeRay's blue Patagonia vest, to add to the closet home of 365 other identical blue Patagonia vests, but right after cloaking D-Mac in his smoking robe--to comfortably retire into his study...with a Cosmo, and special gloves which therapeutically relax his twitter thumbs.

has to
.

>I bet when he arrives at his mansion, he's greeted by a
>Manservant. Giles, then gently removes DeRay's blue Patagonia
>vest, to add to the closet home of 365 other identical blue
>Patagonia vests, but right after cloaking D-Mac in his smoking
>robe--to comfortably retire into his study...with a Cosmo, and
>special gloves which therapeutically relax his twitter
>thumbs.

DeRoland by day

DeRay by night.

BASED

.

who wins this race?


***
I'm tryna be better off, not better than...

The people seem to want her.

None of the people in the streets know him in Ferguson or Baltimore. He does not organize. He is a twitter activist at best.

.

I know some people don't like his and Netta's kind of activism but does that make them frauds?

Ferguson and Bmore. If you're not organizing the people in the communities, you're not an activist. Go on Twitter and follow Dhuruba Toure Shakur and others on his TL. You have people actually from Bmore telling you what it is, and you're asking for links. I can't.

I'll look up the user you mentioned though

.
.
.

rep'd the culture and politics of their city

i feel that shit is so needed and important when we dialogue and speak on the future and political leaders

y'all confirmed my suspicions of Deray, that I've had for a while. I don't hate on what he does, but he seems very much like an opportunist and he claims a lot of social and subaltern political space that should belong to the predominately Black and queer women in The Bay and LA making BLM what it is locally and nationally

https://twitter.com/phillymayor/status/695632219973545984