Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will kick off the Associated Black Charities’ speaker series next month, sparking speculation of a possible return to politics. “This is the year I’m going to decide,” Dixon told the Baltimore Sun, of her desire to run for office again after having completed probation following her 2009 embezzlement conviction. “I’m not going to hide the fact that I enjoyed what I was doing during my 27 years in public office.”
Donald F. Norris, professor and chair of public policy at UMBC, told the Sun that the substance of Dixon’s talk might signal, more definitively, her interest in returning to elective politics. “I would be listening for some indication that she is repentant for what happened,” Norris said, “and recognition that she’d made some mistakes.”
Although Dixon still has some supporters in Baltimore, Norris noted that if the city’s voters were to return Dixon to public office, “It would say to the outside world that a corrupt elected official can spend a little time away and get re-elected.” He concluded, “That’s not an image Baltimore wants, or that any city needs.”
Tags: CAHSS, PublicPolicy
