City Council President Nick Mosby tests whether Baltimore voters can look past his personal troubles

A little more than 24 hours before the deadline to file, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby made his campaign official.

The damning, embarrassing and, at times, self-incriminating testimony he delivered just days earlier during the federal trial of his ex-wife, Marilyn Mosby, did not deter him Thursday from seeking another term.

Now the council president embarks on a campaign unlike any he has ever run. Nick Mosby finds himself at a sizeable fundraising disadvantage and has no significant campaign apparatus. He stands accused of perjury, although no charges have been lodged against him. Under oath, he admitted lying to his wife and the public, lies that he said Wednesday he regrets.

Perhaps most noteworthy, the former city councilman and state delegate enters the 2024 campaign for the first time without the star power of his former wife. Since the glamorous couple made their entrance onto the political stage more than a decade ago, their fortunes were intertwined. The deterioration of their marriage, detailed during Marilyn Mosby’s trial, prompted them to divorce in November.

The couple once projected a powerful image. When Marilyn Mosby first ran in 2014 for state’s attorney in Baltimore, it could be seen at the anti-crime walks they staged together. More recently, the pair walked again in a 2022 campaign video, surrounded by supporters, to “Jesus Walks” by Kanye West. Marilyn Mosby lost that race amid federal mortgage fraud charges.

This time Nick Mosby walks alone, leaving it for the voters of his native Baltimore to decide whether the Mosby name has lost its luster.

“They’re always going to be tied together,” said Clarence Mitchell IV, a WBAL-AM talk show host. “But Nick was on the council before Marilyn became state’s attorney. They’ve had their own political identities.”

Although Mosby announced in March he would seek a second, four-year term, he was slow to build a campaign for the 2024 Democratic primary. That raised speculation about not only his prospects, but whether he would run at all. For most of the last year, he had no operational campaign website. He personally fielded questions from media about his campaign, and reported no payments to consultants or fundraisers on his most recent campaign finance report.

As of a filing deadline last month, Mosby raised $168,700, which he said he collected in just a month. Still, the $183,200 in cash he reported having on hand was a far cry from the $532,233 of his most well-funded opponent, Councilman Zeke Cohen. Former Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, who is running with the help of public financing, has $177,000 available, according to her campaign. Sneed and Cohen are Democrats.

If that fundraising gap presented an uphill battle for Mosby, his testimony late last month during his ex-wife’s second trial may have made a mountain. Mosby detailed how he fell behind on the mortgage of his Reservoir Hill home. His car was repossessed and his wages were garnished to pay student loan debt. In 2015, he was “tens of thousands of dollars” behind on taxes, testimony showed.

On the witness stand, Mosby took the blame for the couple becoming delinquent on their federal taxes, saying he alone handled their taxes and he wasn’t transparent with his wife as the debt accumulated. He also acknowledged lying to the public during a 2020 news conference when he was confronted about the tax lien on their home.

Following his testimony and his wife’s conviction, Mosby’s fellow public officials were measured in their responses. Mayor Brandon Scott and Comptroller Bill Henry, both Democrats, said whether Mosby remains in office is best left in voters’ hands. Henry suggested Mosby’s personal financial struggle “doesn’t affect the day-to-day work of the city.”

On the campaign front, Cohen was silent. Sneed seized on the issue, though.

“It is up to the voters to decide if they can trust someone who mismanaged their own pocketbook to manage the city’s $4.4 billion budget,” she said a statement to The Baltimore Sun.

Roger Hartley, dean of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs, said Mosby needs to rebuild trust with voters, and seemed to be talking steps to do so as of Wednesday by making public statements about his testimony and granting media interviews regarding his campaign.

“You have to find some sincere ways to re-earn that trust,” Hartley said. “Sometimes that’s transparency, and sometimes that’s reminding them of who you are and why you’re a good leader and why, despite the infractions, you can still be a leader in the future that they can trust.”

“Sometimes that’s all people need,” he added. “Sometimes it’s not enough.”

With the May 14 primary fast approaching, there appears to be no movement from City Council members to remove Mosby from office. Under Baltimore’s charter, the council can remove the president by a three-fourths vote if charges are brought by the mayor, the city inspector general or the council’s legislative investigations committee.

While Mosby’s finances have been under scrutiny for almost his entire term as council president, he has enjoyed support from a bloc of allies on the council. He appoints the committee chairs who control the fate of legislation, and his allies hold most of those posts.

As City Council president, Mosby’s salary last year was just over $135,000.

Mosby said he’ll ask voters to consider his record. He pointed to recently finalized inclusionary housing legislation that requires developers to set aside units for lower-income residents when they build market-rate housing.

“When you talk about voters, they’ve known me, seen me grow up in politics for over a decade,” he told The Sun on Friday. “When you talk about my integrity and my character, I think — despite the challenges we have based off a personal issue that I should have kept personal — they know exactly who I am.”

Mosby’s tenure as council president has been at times tumultuous. His hallmark legislative package, to revive the city’s “Dollar House” program and tailor it for legacy residents, became deadlocked in committee. One month later, activists with whom he coordinated derailed a council meeting and stormed through City Hall, yelling and banging on the door to Scott’s suite. Mosby later apologized.

The council has sparred with Scott under Mosby’s leadership. Mosby stood up the council’s investigative committee to probe a deal with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. for the company to manage the city’s underground conduit system. When Mosby and Henry sat out a Board of Estimates meeting in protest, Scott passed the deal anyway. The Mosby-led council struck back, temporarily blocking Scott’s appointment of Faith Leach as city administrator.

Joshua Harris, vice president of the Baltimore City NAACP, said that while the group doesn’t endorse candidates, Mosby “has championed many of the issues that have benefited the communities we serve.”

He cited Mosby’s efforts on the BGE deal, inclusionary housing and “banning the box,” legislation to bar employers from asking about a job applicant’s criminal record. Mosby sponsored a city bill to ban the box in 2014 when he was a councilman, and later pushed the issue on the state level.

Of Mosby’s mishandling of his personal finances, Harris said voters understand “there’s no such thing as perfect people.”

“Someone’s track record, their commitment — that’s what I believe folks should make their decisions on,” Harris said.

Kaye Whitehead, host of “Today with Dr. Kaye” on WEAA-FM, said there is room for a redemption story if Mosby makes the right pitch to voters. Whitehead’s show was among those Mosby appeared on following his wife’s conviction Tuesday. He needs to emphasize that he’s a son of Baltimore, she said, and appeal to the sympathies of voters who also lack the benefits of generational wealth.

The financial revelations made during Mosby’s testimony may be damaging, Whitehead said, particularly among Black women voters, who she called the “foundational base” of the Democratic Party. The Mosbys for many years sold themselves as a “powerbroker family,” she said, likening them to former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama. Black voters can be conservative in their perception of the family dynamic, she said.

“I do have a concern there, as a married woman, when what comes out is you say, ‘I held this from her all this time, and it got worse and worse, and I never told her,'” Whitehead said of Nick Mosby’s testimony. “That’s a little bit uncomfortable when you think about trying to vote for someone. How much trust do you need to have of your candidates?”

TJ Smith, another WBAL-AM host, said despite now running solo, Mosby can still benefit from voters loyal to his ex-wife. Smith said callers to his show have argued Mosby’s testimony, while damaging, was chivalrous.

“He did what any man would do: You take up for your wife, and you fall on your sword,” Smith said.

Baltimore is a “forgiving” place, Smith argued, willing to start over with a flawed leader who apologizes and takes responsibility.

“The message Nick Mosby is going to have to convey is, ‘While I had these issues in my personal life, there’s nothing you can point to of any kind of lapses in my professional life,’” Smith said.

Mosby said he has no concerns about entering his latest campaign without his ex-wife.

“I’m the only person in the race that’s from Baltimore, that has sat in Baltimore public schools that have failed me and my pupils around me. I’ve sat and watched my mother catch several buses to go to work in the failed mass transit of our city,” he said. “I think voters have always voted for me for myself and my policy.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Jean Marbella contributed to this article.