Really, isn't everyone a winner in this race?

Laura Vozzella

September 12, 2008

City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake might be Baltimore's mayor-in-waiting, but there was no waiting yesterday.

At 6:49 a.m. yesterday, her office issued an e-mail titled, "Council President Declares Victory in 9/11 'Run to Remember' Challenge." The 5K road race began 11 minutes later.

The news release was embargoed until 7 a.m., but still! Don't runners usually cross the finish line before claiming victory?

"I learned from working on campaigns that you declare victory as early as possible," said Rawlings-Blake spokesman Ryan O'Doherty.

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Rawlings-Blake, Mayor Sheila Dixon and State's Attorney Pat Jessamy challenged each other back in July to participate in the race, a fundraiser for the Baltimore Police Foundation and the city Fire Department. Even before the runners stepped off, O'Doherty said, race organizers had told him that the council prez's office had more people on its team than the other two. As a percentage of employees, anyway.

Dixon's team had 25 runners, while Jessamy's and Rawlings-Blake's each had 31. And Rawlings-Blake's office is the smallest of the three.

Of course, everyone's a winner at this sort of charity event. Which is why Jessamy's office also claimed victory.

"We are still calculating the final numbers, but it looks like the BCSAO had more registered participants than the Mayor's Office or the City Council!!" the state's attorney's office e-mailed its employees at 10:53 a.m. Any state's attorney staffers who'd run were urged to make themselves known, just to make sure they'd been counted.

Jessamy spokeswoman Margaret Burns said she missed the as-a-percentage fine print. O'Doherty stood by that and said it was too late to add runners to the various office teams. "The numbers I gave you are the final numbers," he said.

Dixon, alone, seemed to have accepted defeat. How could she not? In a stunning upset, the fitness-buff mayor crossed the finish behind Rawlings-Blake, whom the mayor often kids in public about needing to work out. The council president finished the 3.1-mile race in 36:41. Not exactly Olympic speed, but enough to beat Dixon's 41:07.

The mayor, whose spokesman said she'd pulled a muscle during the race, shouldn't feel bad. Turns out Rawlings-Blake pulled an inadvertent Rosie Ruiz. Intending to run the 1-mile race, she got confused on the course and finished with the 5K runners.

"I did more than 1 mile, but not the whole 5K," she said.

If you're wondering, Jessamy walked, so her time wasn't recorded. Same for Fire Chief Jim Clack. Police Commish Fred Bealefeld was the standout with a time of 23:48. That's a 7:57-minute-mile pace.

What do you have to do to get a sticker?

It's not your imagination: Barack Obama bumper stickers really are hard to come by in Maryland.

Even the state's most powerful Dem seems to be having trouble getting his hands on them, not that Martin O'Malley would slap them on the back of his state SUV or anything.

The governor expressed frustration the other morning, at the pre-meeting of the Board of Public Works, that the state party can't get enough Obama stickers and other campaign stuff, The Baltimore Sun's Laura Smitherman reports.

O'Malley said he didn't think it would be "wasting money on a safe state" - he made quotation marks with his hands there, so you know he was really annoyed - to send some stickers Maryland's way.

Not that much to ask, considering O'Malley plans to raise $900,000 for the Dems and to travel to Pennsylvania and Virginia for Obama - two other tidbits he dropped at the meeting.

State party spokesman David Paulson said Maryland Dems have had about as many Obama bumper stickers as they did for John Kerry four years ago.

"They're in great supply and great demand," Paulson said.

The party office received a shipment of 10,000 Wednesday. "We were virtually out of them until UPS came rolling in," he said.

Connect the dots

Not to be outdone by breast-pumping, BlackBerrying Sarah Palin, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger received Working Mother Magazine's "Best of Congress" award this week. He was recognized for promoting family-friendly policies in Congress as well as in his own Washington and Timonium offices, a news release from his office says. New mothers employed by the congressman have the option of working a compressed workweek or telecommuting. "All employees are given a Blackberry that makes telecommuting or working outside the office a breeze," says the release. A breeze, that is, so long as baby naps. ... Ruppersberger also vouches for the continued Democratic leanings of his former UM frat brother, John Coale, the major Democratic fundraiser who came out for McCain last week. His office reports that on Tuesday night, Ruppersberger and Coale attended a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hosted by Rep. Donna Edwards in Mitchellville. Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen were there, too. ... Looks like one of Maryland's higher-ed gurus flunked geography. A release from the Maryland Higher Education Commission urging vets to take advantage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Act of 2008 says the legislation was sponsored by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) and "James Webb (D-Maryland)." Webb represents Virginia.

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Really, isn't everyone a winner in this race?

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Annual city 5K honors victims of 9/11 attacks

Run to Remember Photos

What do you have to do to get a sticker?

Connect the dots

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