With just over a month to go before the Democratic primary in the race for Baltimore City Council president, Councilman Zeke Cohen retains a cash advantage over incumbent Nick Mosby and former council member Shannon Sneed, according to campaign finance filings submitted Tuesday.

Cohen, the second-term representative of Southeast Baltimore’s 1st District, reported over $480,000 in the bank after raising $92,000 between mid-January and the April deadline. Trailing Cohen, Sneed reported having about $237,000 in the bank, funds she has built up largely thanks to matching dollars provided through the city’s new public financing system — with more on the way. Mosby followed close behind with just over $230,000 on hand.

The latest campaign finance numbers come as the race for City Council president is entering its final and most competitive stretch. The three candidates tried to win over voters last week in their first televised debate, hosted by Fox45. Polling conducted by The Baltimore Banner in September showed Cohen with a 13-point lead over Mosby, but that was before Sneed had jumped into the race. At the time, more than half of respondents said they were undecided or preferred someone other than Cohen and Mosby.

The Democratic primary election will be held on May 14. In deep-blue Baltimore, the primary will effectively determine the city’s next council president. One more campaign finance disclosure deadline, on May 3, remains before Election Day.

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In the race for Baltimore’s No. 2 elected position, Cohen showed himself to be a formidable fundraiser out of the gates, banking over $520,000 before the January reporting deadline, while taking in nearly $20,000 from state political action committees and $6,000 maximum donations ranging from Ekiben co-owner Ephrem Abebe to Canton Port Services LLC to the executive director of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company and his parents, Dr. Joan Berzoff and Lewis Cohen, in Massachusetts.

The fundraising period since January has been somewhat lighter for Cohen. The councilman didn’t land any maximum donors in that period, and he spent well over the amount he raised. Among the donors to Cohen this time were William Stromberg, former CEO of T. Rowe Price Group, who gave $5,250; the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, which gave $4,000; Lenel Srochi-Meyerhoff, wife of retired rheumatologist and community advocate John Meyerhoff, gave $1,000; and the East Baltimore pizza joint Verde, which gave $1,000.

Mosby, meanwhile, reported that he raised $71,000 since mid-January, donations that came in despite an especially turbulent stretch for him.

At the end of January, Mosby testified in U.S. District Court on behalf of his ex-wife, former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, taking the fall for the couple’s delinquent tax returns. Federal prosecutors accused Nick Mosby of perjury in open court, alleging that he claimed deductions for charitable contributions at a time when he owed tens of thousands of dollars in taxes, fell months behind on mortgage payments and had his wages garnished and his car repossessed.

Mosby later admitted that he lied publicly about the status of his IRS payments at a 2020 news conference but argued that personal financial troubles haven’t interfered with his ability to lead the City Council. Despite private speculation in City Hall over whether Mosby would follow through on his reelection plans, the council president made his bid official in February, on the day before the filing deadline.

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Mosby raised close to $200,000 before filing his January campaign finance report, with most of his contributions coming in after early December.

At the April deadline, Mosby reported receiving one max donation of $6,000, from Lisa Harris Jones of the lobbying firm Harris Jones & Malone. He also received $2,000 from Wheelabrator Technologies, owner of the controversial waste-to-energy trash incinerator in South Baltimore; $1,000 from Domino Foods; and $1,000 from Corey Stevenson of the IT company LeCor Technology Services.

Some specific donors to Mosby’s campaign, though, were obscured in the new filing due to a seeming reporting error. Mosby’s latest report attributes nearly $50,000 in donations — well over the $6,000 limit — to the Tempe, Arizona-based Paragon Payment Solutions, a payment processor for campaign contributions. The report also lists a $10,000 contribution from Home Depot’s PAC, also over the cap for individual donors.

Mosby’s campaign did not directly address questions on Wednesday morning about the Home Depot PAC or Paragon Solutions’ contributions but said it planned to file an amended report.

Sneed, meanwhile, has financed her campaign through the new Baltimore City Fair Election Fund, which multiplies small donations if candidates forgo contributions larger than $150 and donations from unions, corporations and political action committees. The first citywide candidate in Baltimore to take this route, Sneed needed at least 250 contributions from city residents totaling $15,000 to qualify.

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Sneed campaign manager Kevin Gillogly said the campaign has received a little over $50,000 in direct contributions, with the remaining balance coming from city matching funds. The campaign has also qualified for close to another $25,000 in matching funds that it has not yet received from the city, Gillogly said.

In total, more than 570 different Baltimore residents have donated to Sneed, which Gillogly said surpassed the number of donations from individual city residents to Cohen and Mosby combined.

Mosby reported spending close to $63,000 since mid-January, with the bulk of his money going to fundraisers, a campaign consultant and robocalls or phone banking. The council president reported no spending on campaign staff.

Cohen, meanwhile, spent more than double Mosby over that stretch, putting much of his money into staff, fundraising events and various consultancies.

Adam Willis

adam.willis@thebaltimorebanner.com

Adam Willis

Adam Willis covers city government for The Banner, including the impacts of the large COVID-19 stimulus package that Baltimore received from the federal government.

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