Mfume Trails Top Rivals in Fundraising

Race Is Likely To Be Among Nation's Costliest

Kweisi Mfume chats with former College Park mayor Dervey Lomax and his wife, Thelma, during a campaign event with Prince George's Democrats at Plato's Diner in College Park. Some say the U.S. Senate candidate hasn't been disciplined about fundraising. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

His suit jacket off and shirt sleeves pushed up, Kweisi Mfume was on a roll. The Montgomery County teachers sizing up statewide candidates were answering him like a church congregation, finishing his sentences, nodding their heads and murmuring, "Um-hmm, yes."

"You are a breath of fresh air," Takoma Park educator Ivy Leichman told the former congressman and NAACP leader, explaining, "He spoke with us rather than to us."

That ability to connect with voters helped Mfume win the teachers' backing for his U.S. Senate bid and has kept him competitive in a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D).

But it has not translated into campaign cash. A decade after leaving Congress and 18 months after his controversial departure from the NAACP, Mfume has not demonstrated that he has the contacts or the fervor to bring in the kind of money crucial in what could be one of the nation's most expensive Senate races.

"No matter how good a campaigner you are, no matter how strong your message, you have to be able to convey that to millions of voters, and you cannot do that one on one," said Mike Morrill, a longtime Democratic strategist not involved in any Senate campaign.

Mfume's chief Democratic rival, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, has raised $3.6 million -- nearly seven times as much as Mfume's $520,000. The leading Republican candidate, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, has raised $2.4 million and has the promise of millions more from the national GOP.

"I have the money to fight back," Cardin told the Montgomery teachers that day, "and you're going to need it."

Mfume and his strategists say they are running a nontraditional, populist campaign and never expected to match Cardin dollar for dollar. Cardin, a longtime congressman representing Baltimore, sits on a powerful House committee and has won support from most of the state's Democratic establishment.

"Insider establishment candidates always raise more money early; outsider candidates raise their money late," Mfume strategist Walter Ludwig said. "At the end of the day, Maryland Democratic voters will understand that Kweisi is the only candidate in the race who can beat Michael Steele."

But some Democrats say Mfume's lack of financial support reflects a deeper problem with his candidacy, chiefly that some party activists worry he would not match up well against the likely Republican contender.

That impression was reinforced by news accounts last year about allegations in an internal NAACP memo that Mfume showed favoritism toward some female employees at the organization, said Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland professor of government and politics. Although the controversy turned out not to be "the kiss of death," Walters said, "it still prevented some people from giving him the kind of money it would take to make him look good."

Mfume, who has denied the allegations, acknowledged that the reports hurt his fundraising.