In Senate Race, Mfume Counters Underdog Image With Self-Portrait

The woman who helped introduced Kweisi Mfume at the Montgomery County retirement community asked how to pronounce his name. The audience gasped as the U.S. Senate candidate from Baltimore told of the five children he fathered out of wedlock.

But by the end of a 30-minute address last week -- a speech that encompassed his mother's death when he was 16, his drift into gang life and his eventual triumph as a congressman and NAACP leader -- half the crowd at Leisure World in Silver Spring rose in spontaneous ovation.

It was the kind of embrace that Mfume is counting on to lift his fortunes in next year's Senate race in Maryland. Four months after becoming the first candidate to leap in, Mfume has found himself in an uphill primary battle against not only a better-financed Democrat but conventional wisdom, as well.

Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Baltimore, who entered the race more than a month after Mfume, has trumpeted his early fundraising success and rolled out several dozen endorsements, including that of House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Southern Maryland.

Reports filed Friday showed that Cardin raised $1.1 million during the past three months compared with Mfume's $134,432. Meanwhile, many of the state's most prominent African American leaders whose support could bolster Mfume's campaign have held off on taking sides in a primary in which party officials expect about 40 percent of the electorate to be black.

The lack of money, particularly, could be crippling during a campaign in which spending for each candidate could top $10 million, analysts say.

Mfume took issue with such assumptions last week and suggested there was "a huge effort to sort of guide the process" in favor of Cardin by "the political pundits and the so-called experts."

"This campaign is not going to be won on political commentators' observations," he said after his Thursday night appearance at Leisure World. "It's going to be won by political outreach."

The stakes could extend beyond a disgruntled candidate. Mfume -- and to a greater degree, some of his supporters -- also have cautioned that Democrats risk losing black voters in the 2006 general election if party leaders are too quick to declare the primary over.

Republicans are expected to nominate Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R), who is black and has spent years trying to persuade African Americans to consider GOP candidates.

"We're getting somewhat concerned that we're seeing the same rubber-stamp group from the Democratic Party try to decide this," said Del. Obie Patterson (D-Prince George's), who said he is "leaning" toward supporting Mfume.

Mfume and his advisers acknowledge that he entered the race to succeed Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D) somewhat flat-footed. Seeking to appear decisive, Mfume announced his candidacy just days after Sarbanes's surprise retirement announcement in March.