Sheila Dixon

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Sheila A. Dixon
48th Mayor of Baltimore
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 17, 2007
Preceded by	Martin O'Malley
President, Baltimore City Council
In office January 2000 – January 2007
Baltimore City Council 4th District
In office 1988 – 2000
Born	December 27, 1953 (1953-12-27) (age 54) Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Political party	Democratic
Children	Joshua and Jasmine
Religion	African Methodist Episcopal

Sheila A. Dixon (born December 27, 1953) is an American politician who is the forty-eighth Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. When former Mayor Martin O'Malley was sworn in as Governor on January 17, 2007, Dixon became mayor and served out the remaining year of O'Malley's term. In November 2007, she was elected mayor in her own right and is currently serving her first term. She is a former member of the Baltimore City Council, the first African American female to serve as its president and Baltimore's first female mayor. She governs a more populous city than any other female mayor in the United States. Dixon supports Barack Obama for president.

[edit] Biography

Dixon was born and was raised in the Ashburton neighborhood of West Baltimore. Her father, Phillip Dixon, Sr. was a car salesman, and her mother, Winona Dixon, was a community activist, active in her church, political causes, and member of local community groups.
Dixon attended the Baltimore City public schools and is a graduate of Northwestern High School. She holds a bachelor's degree from Towson University and a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University. An active member of Bethel A.M.E. Church and former trustee, Dixon continues to serve as a member of the Stewardess Board. She serves on other boards, including the Institute of Human Virology, the Transplant Resource Center, the Urban Health Initiative, the Baltimore Public Markets Corporation, the Living Classrooms Foundation, and the Walters Art Gallery.

Twice divorced, Dixon is a single mom raising her two children, Jasmine and Joshua.^[1] She is the aunt of professional basketball player Juan Dixon, who led the University of Maryland to the 2002 NCAA championship. She is a lifelong resident of the City of Baltimore.

[edit] Career

Dixon (front, third from left) cuts the parade ribbon at the 2007 Baltimore Greek Independence Day Parade with Congressman John Sarbanes.

Immediately after university, Dixon worked as an elementary school teacher and adult education instructor with the Head Start program. She then worked for 17 years as an international trade specialist with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

In 1986, Dixon was elected to the Baltimore City State Central Committee representing the 40th Legislative District. In 1987, she won a seat on the Baltimore City Council representing the 4th Council District, where she served twelve years. She became the city council president in 1999, the first African-American woman elected to this position.

She is currently the only African American female mayor in the United States in a city with a population greater than 600,000 and she is also the first African American woman to serve as Baltimore's mayor.

[edit] As Mayor

Although she's only been in office for a short period of time, she "has impressed political pundits with her energetic first three months and her ability to handle crises."^[2]
She has accomplished what Baltimore mayors for the past 30 years have been unable to do, and that is to reduce the murder rate in Baltimore. ^[3] In February of 2008, the Baltimore City Police reported a sharp decline in homicides in Baltimore. According to police there were 14 murders in the city for the month of January, the lowest monthly total in 30 years.^[4] As of April, 2008, there had been a 40% reduction in murders in the city.^[5] By April 15, 2008 the number of murders in the city had grown to 54,^[6] the lowest total to this time of the year in recent memory, putting the city on pace for 189 murders in 2008.
She also led the effort to pass Baltimore's smoking ban, she's allocated record funding for campaigns to clean up Baltimore streets and she's expanded funding for affordable housing. While her critics complain that crime has risen in Baltimore during her tenure and that she is not paying enough attention to the issue, her record shows that she has increased police patrols,^[7] is cracking down on the possession of illegal guns,^[8] and is actively securing federal funds for crime fighting programs.^[9]

She is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,^[10] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

[edit] The Shoe incident

In 1991 Dixon waved her shoe at white colleagues on the Baltimore City Council and yelled, "You've been running things for the last 20 years. Now the shoe is on the other foot."^[11] This incident led many people including some of her opponents to view her as a divisive person.^[12]

Dixon explained her earlier inappropriate comment by stating that she has "matured" since making the shoe comment and that she now attempts "to communicate better with individuals."^[13]

In her first inaugural address as Mayor, Dixon alluded to what she considers people's wrong impression of her and stated, "I want you to know that I am much more than a newspaper headline or a sound bite on the evening news."^[14]

[edit] Awards and honors

Mayor Dixon at City Hall reception, October 2007.

Dixon has been named one of Baltimore's Most Influential Leaders by the Baltimore Business Journal and was recently admitted to The Daily Record's Circle of Excellence for her third selection as one of "Maryland's Top 100 Women." She has also received the Enolia P. McMillan Women in NAACP Award,^{[citation needed]} 1993 and named as one of the Most Influential Baltimoreans by the Baltimore Business Journal in 2000. She won the Shero Award from the Maryland Women for Responsive Government in 2000 and the Unsung Hero Award from the Maryland Minority Contractors Association in 2001.

[edit] 2007 election

Dixon ran for a full term as mayor in the 2007 election and won the democratic primary in September.^[15] Dixon maintained a strong fundraising advantage throughout the campaign. Scores of public officials, unions and newspapers endorsed the Mayor's campaign. This includes the Baltimore Sun, The Afro-American Newspaper, AFL-CIO, fmr. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Minority Contractors Association, SEIU, SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, Gov. O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot, Unite Here, United Auto Workers, and others.

The Baltimore Examiner noted "some observers are suggesting that it may be open and shut." Morgan State University political science professor C. Vernon Gray confirms the Examiner's analysis when he noted, "it's [Dixon's] race to lose... she really has done an excellent job of governing despite all the crises she's had." Del. Jill Carter , City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell, Jr. and city schools administrator Andrey Bundley are noted as Mayor Dixon's highest profile challengers.^[16] In fact, in a poll released by the Baltimore Sun on July 16, 2007, Dixon, with 47 percent of the likely democratic voters, leads her nearest rival, Mitchell, by 32 points.^[17][18]A September 2, 2007 Baltimore Sun poll had Dixon maintaining her strong lead. According to the poll, Dixon led Councilman Mitchell Jr. by 46 percent to 19 percent - a 27 percentage-point spread - according to the poll conducted by OpinionWorks, an independent Annapolis-based firm. The race, apparently, never really became competitive. Lenneal J. Henderson, a professor at the University of Baltimore's School of Public Affairs, said, "I think it is over. It would take a huge misstep on the part of Sheila Dixon for her not to win this one."

A major issue during the primary mayoral campaign was crime. By mid-2007, homicides in Baltimore are on pace to surpass 300 for the year, the most since the early years of the O'Malley administration. On June 19th, Mayor Dixon presented her crime plan to 500 Baltimore police officers,^[19] but Dixon was attacked by Mitchell and Carter for not doing enough.^[20] Dixon's crime plan departed from previous Mayor Martin O'Malley's as it stressed community policing and focusing on apprehending the most violent offenders as opposed to zero tolerance.^[21] As of June 19th, there were 146 homicides and 340 non-lethal shootings in the city.^[22]

According to Johns Hopkins Political Scientist Matthew Crenson, "Everybody complains about the homicides, but I think the assumption that many voters make, especially in Baltimore, is that the mayor can't do a lot to reduce the homicide rate. And maybe Keiffer Mitchell made a mistake to make that the focus of his campaign."

[edit] Endorsements

By the end of July 2007, Dixon's campaign had been endorsed by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council of the Maryland AFL-CIO collectively as well as several individual union endorsements. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot was the only state wide elected official to endorse Dixon until an August 13 rally where Governor Martin O'Malley gave his endorsement. Former Congressman Kweisi Mfume also endorsed Dixon at the same event in front of Baltimore's City Hall.^[23] State Delegates Tom Hucker (Montgomery County), Maggie McIntosh, Curt Anderson, Cheryl Glenn, Melvin L. Stukes, Talmadge Branch, Senators Nathaniel J. McFadden and Cathy Pugh and Baltimore City Council members Robert Curran, Bernard "Jack" Young, Ed Reisinger, Stephanie Rawlings Blake and Agnes Welch have endorsed Dixon and were at the rally as well.

[edit] Victory

Dixon won the 2007 Baltimore Democratic Mayoral Primary over her closet opponent Michell with 63 percent of the total votes; she will face Republican Elbert Henderson in the general election in November.

[edit] 2007 Primary election results

The final, official results for the Democratic primary, as reported on the city of Baltimore's election board Web site.^[24]

Republican candidate Elbert Henderson ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

[edit] 2007 General election results

These are the final, official results for the General election, as reported on the city of Baltimore's election board Web site.^[25]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sheila Dixon
• Sheila Dixon page on the Baltimore Collective
• CityMayors profile
• Mayors Against Illegal Guns homepage

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