Mfume Trails Top Rivals in Fundraising
Race Is Likely To Be Among Nation's Costliest

By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 14, 2006

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.

"It was designed to get me out of the race, and if not, it was designed to cripple me in fundraising and support," he said in an interview last week.

By his own admission, Mfume is not fond of fundraising. Until recently, he did not have what professionals consider a disciplined schedule for working big-ticket events or phoning potential donors. That's changing, he said, with fundraisers planned for Atlanta, Chicago and Charlotte in coming weeks.

If he can make it through the Sept. 12 primary, Mfume expects the national Democratic Party to pump in millions.

But money matters in the primary, too. Cardin has the funds to run television ads to introduce himself and his policies in the expensive media market serving Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Without a flush bank account, it's "virtually impossible to get up on TV in any meaningful way," said Jim Jordan, former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

A week of advertising in the Washington area costs more than $400,000, meaning Mfume would have little chance to change the impression left by last year's news accounts.

"TV is still, and will be for the foreseeable future, the most important advertising medium in politics," Jordan said.

Even without much cash on hand, Mfume was within eight percentage points of Cardin, according to a statewide poll last month. The Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies poll had both Democrats ahead of Steele in a general election matchup.

Support for other Democratic contenders was in the single digits, the poll showed. But at least one candidate, American University professor Allan Lichtman, has already aired ads on cable television. Another, Montgomery County businessman Josh Rales, has vowed to spend millions of his own money to promote his candidacy.

Mfume acknowledged that it will take money to win the race, especially in the seven weeks between the primary and general elections. Former New York City mayor David Dinkins hosted a fundraiser for him in March, and NBA Commissioner David Stern and Washington power broker Vernon Jordan are among his contributors.

Political observers had expected Mfume's leading role at the NAACP, which he ran for nine years, to yield a wealth of connections.

"I'm surprised he hasn't raised more money. I'm at a loss to explain why this is happening," said Julian Bond, the NAACP board chairman who has at times been at odds with Mfume. "He's a more than credible candidate, and it may be that Cardin has created some kind of inevitability about his nomination."

Hazel Dukes, an NAACP board member who has contributed to Mfume's campaign, said the candidate's fundraising woes are not a reflection of a strained relationship with the group. "That's over with. That's not even an issue," she said. She suggested, rather, that money is tight because of contests in other states involving black Democrats.

The dynamics of the Senate contest in Maryland are infused with issues of race. Mfume is the only black candidate in the Democratic primary, in which African Americans could account for about 40 percent of voters.

In past elections, voters have been drawn to Mfume's transformative personal story: Although he ran with gangs as a teenager and fathered five children with four women, he went on to receive a master's degree at Johns Hopkins University and win a seat on Baltimore's City Council.

Mfume's campaign literature features a Thanksgiving photo of the candidate, 57, with his five sons, whom he has actively supported, and their wives and children.

But the NAACP allegations threaten to cloud that portrait.

In a general election matchup between Mfume and Steele -- the first African American elected statewide in Maryland -- Republicans could shift the conversation from race to character, Walters said.

"Most people believe that Steele is a formidable contender," said Rep. Albert R. Wynn, a Prince George's Democrat who has not endorsed a candidate in the primary. "I think that Steele's character and his family are perceived as one of his stronger assets."

Against Cardin, Steele could tap lingering resentment over Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's decision not to pick a black running mate in her 2002 gubernatorial bid.

But Cardin has ties to local black leaders, including state Sen. Delores G. Kelley (D-Baltimore County), who has worked with him through an organization called the Black/Jewish Forum of Baltimore. John Louis Wright, a Guilford pastor and former Maryland NAACP president, backs Cardin in the primary and counts himself as one of "a lot of people who have a strong belief in moral character."

Who would he support in a general election contest between Mfume and Steele?

"I think you got the message already," Wright said.

Mfume sounded more mystified than angry about such impressions. "I don't worry about things that aren't true," he said. "It's not what people throw at you; it's how you fight back."