She knew Bob didn’t have much of a chance, but this is how she lived her life. She always had given shelter, food, money—whatever was needed. “Just like any neighbor would,” she said, “or at least used to.”
She has been in the neighborhood for g long time now, up in troubled Reservoir Hill, long enough to have seen some of the little children running around her house end up out on the street, selling crack cocaine. “At least they felt some love and support in their lives,” she said, “in a little way I might have changed them.” She had a stroke earlier this year, forcing her to sell her home and rent a small apartment.
This is Sally Kearsley, who has pledged $10,000 to Bob Kaufman’s mayoral campaign and another $90,000 to her own campaign to elect Kaufman. Although she didn’t know him personally when she made the pledges, she respected his long record as a fighter for civil rights, “even when he wasn’t fighting too wisely.” She agrees with his priorities, of schools and an auto insurance co-op, of his unmitigated lust to better the lives of everyday citizens.
As of Thursday of this week, “Kaufman for Mayor” signs have been spotted on MTA busses across the city. If this money gives him the visibility across the city (in a recent Gomez poll, he had less than 6% name recognition across the city) is yet to be seen. “At least it will break up the monotony of all those [Mayoral candidate Lawrence] Bell stickers,” Kaufman said.
His campaign style has been labeled by those in the media as “antagonistic” and often involves browbeating radio stations and newspapers for coverage of his campaign.
He is currently suing WEAA, the radio station of Morgan State University. He alleges that the radio station refused to give him a radio talk show because he is white and Jewish.
Although Kaufman’s windfall is only a third of the reported war chests of Bell or Carl Stokes, he is used to running shoe-string campaigns. If the money holds out, he might just be a major factor in this latest bout of Baltimore politics.