Transcript:
I’m Jim Brady, and this is Cambridge Inside Out, where we compare our reporters’ notebooks, both from the local perspective and the view from well beyond our city limits. With me today is Josh Kurtz, founding editor at Maryland Matters.
Josh, I’m sure it’s not every day, but I bet Cambridge does come up on your radar now and then.
JK
It does, yeah. No, I love Cambridge. Spent some time there. It’s a beautiful place and from what I can tell, lots of interesting politics going on too.
JB
Yeah, you had a piece in there recently about our elections.
JK
I mean, you’ve had some interesting mayors through the years and a couple of years ago when you had your special election and Senator Addie Eckerdt was one of the candidates that caught the attention of a lot of our readers. There’s always something interesting going on there for sure.
JB
Yeah, and I guess the most recent focus was the story of Andrew Bradshaw.
JK
I don’t have to tell your listeners. He resigned in a cloud of scandal and now he’s trying to make a political comeback, and that in and of itself is interesting. And then of course there are multiple issues in the election that are interesting too, throwing our reader’s attention to the fact that he’s attempting to make a political comeback.
JB
Yes, he’s a brilliant politician, very ambitious, plugged into the channels of state and local government. Great conversationalist, a real contributor. I know in one example, in the short time he was mayor, he devised the legal contract that forced Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated to do the job the city intended. I actually served on a nonprofit with him years back, and I was duly impressed. And that’s why, like so many other people here, I was just stunned when the details and the nature of his offenses were spelled out in the indictment.
JK
Yeah, I can only imagine, and actually when I talked to him for the article I wrote a few weeks back, he was, I thought, very thoughtful and strategic in the way he talked about the waterfront development. And I mean, he was upfront too about the scandal because that’s not something you can sweep under the rug easily, and if you’re really serious about making a contribution and making political comeback, you really have to confront it and acknowledge it head on. He doesn’t really have any control over what the voters are going to think about that, but at least if you attempt to address it in what seems like an honest way or at least emphasize less as they’re making their decision.
JB
And it seems like there are two really strong camps among the voters. There’s the Second Chances and the Unpardonable Disgrace crowd. So there’s this significant contingent of locals who say, Andrew Bradshaw deserves a second chance. They see he’s intelligent and capable and say you shouldn’t turn down a real asset to the city because of one mistake. But then there’s a lot of people who are saying what he did was not one mistake. It wasn’t just one lewd message that he posted on Reddit. It was 50 postings over two months, uploading each time a nude picture of his girlfriend. And what he wrote revealed some really depraved thinking. His language was so profane and so racist that prosecutors actually redacted some of the words in their indictment, including his repeated use of the N-word. So what he did, the indictment said, “was against the peace government and dignity of the state.”
JK
Yeah. Well, pretty damning. I mean, look, it’s not surprising that there are two camps on this issue. I mean, people get and deserve second chances a lot in life. People get and deserve second chances a lot in politics. Certainly if you look much more broadly at where American politics has been in the last few decades from Bill Clinton’s scandals to all the charges against Donald Trump through the years. I mean, a segment of the electorate seems a lot more forgiving and what might’ve been a disqualifier some years ago, no longer is. One of the inevitable things about this is that no matter how far he goes in politics, this scandal is going to follow him, fairly or, not that I want to look too far down the line, but this is always going to be a line in his obituary. And anytime someone from the outside is dealing with him, if he becomes mayor again, inevitably that’s going to be on their minds. I mean, it’s not something you can escape. It’s just a question of how you deal with it and how the public perceives it.
JB
And he’s really frustrated by the dilemma that this presents. I mean, he went online and stated that – this was an interesting statement – he said that those who won’t vote for him are “choosing failure over forgiveness,” which doesn’t imply he thinks very much of the capabilities of the two other candidates for mayor, both African-American women.
JK
In a town where at least the plurality of residents are African-American. I mean, that’s a pretty stark argument, and it may not have been the most tactful argument, but there you have it.
JB
I think in your article you also wrote about Lajan Cephas and La-Shon Banks Foster were both running for mayor and they’ve had some legal difficulties, I guess.
JK
Yes. I mean, I guess you could say at a certain level it makes them relatable because plenty of people have had personal problems, and when you’re a public official, those get magnified. Again, this is something the voters will have to weigh.
JB
I mean, it’s really taken on a life itself online. I think this last weekend was interesting. A woman wrote to Bradshaw saying that being remorseful doesn’t assure “vulnerable underrepresented communities in Cambridge, that they are safe in a city administered by you.” He wrote elsewhere. He said, “I don’t hate women and I don’t disrespect them. I fell into an ugly trap as internet porn and its outcomes can be.” That’s the first time he disclosed any reason for this offense, interestingly.
JK
Well, it sounds like he’s trying to minimize his own blame too. Ultimately you choose to get sucked into that scene, I think.
JB
Yeah, and the people who are concerned about say he wants to be not just rehabilitated, but he wants to be the face of the city.
JK
Maybe that his talents and his upside outweigh that, but that’s something voters have to consider.
JB
So what other issues do you think observers might be watching?
JK
Well, economic development is a big deal, and economic opportunity is a big deal for the city of Cambridge. From an outsider’s perspective and somebody who lives west of the Chesapeake Bay, I mean, when you think about the shore, we see some communities that are thriving and that are or are transforming themselves. Easton seems pretty prosperous these days and Oxford and some of those towns, Salisbury seems to be going through a transformation and a renaissance. And that hasn’t quite happened yet. Cambridge, though it has many of the same assets of building blocks as these other communities. And so from an outsider’s perspective, you kind of wonder why it hasn’t happened and what it’s going to take to make that happen. And I have to believe that’s a major consideration for the voters too.
JB
Yeah, I think that the stakes are high and the money’s on the waterfront.
JK
And that’s really the 64 million dollar question. I mean, even if you know nothing about the town, when you cross the Malkus bridge and you drive into town and you kind of see a mess over there, you’re sort of wondering what’s going on. But if you think about it, you could also see the incredible potential. And it sounds like the whole development and the nonprofit that’s been set up to handle the development has been at a minimum kind of mishandled so far, and you have to wonder what’s going on, and I’m sure voters are keenly aware of it.
JB
Yeah, that’s right. Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated has been a real tussle with the city because they recently went to court because CWDI was not doing what the city chartered it to do, and instead had decided to act as, not choosing a developer, but to be a developer themselves. And they spent millions on top-shelf consultants and they haven’t been able to attract anyone who will sign a contract other than more consultants for hire. It’s been six years since this entity was created and they don’t have a single contract.
JK
That seems like a reason for voters to be outraged. And consultants – I mean, certainly from an outsider, when I heard that the corporation was going to try to develop the project itself, I mean that sounded, that raised some red flags and I’m sure it did for a lot of people around the state who are watching and thinking about this project.
JB
So interestingly with the city election, there’s somewhat of a play to see will CWDI get enough sympathetic people on the city council to give it its continued free freehand, rather than what the direction the city’s been going, which has been trying to get it, essentially, to obey city leaders, open up documents, be forthcoming and responsive to the way the elected officials want them to go. 15 people running for Mayor council, and it’s really hard to pin them down on CWDI. A couple incumbents. First Ward, Laurel Atkiss and Sputty Cephas in the fourth ward. They’re both incumbents and they would insist on city oversight, but the others, they just say they want to have a better relation between the city and CWDI.
JK
I mean, this is a huge taxpayer asset and one of your local state delegates, Delegate [Tom] Hutchinson is aware of this. I think people at the state level are aware of the problems and are watching this and looking to see what the next couple of chapters are.
JB
There’s kind of a trump card in this election too. The mayor is the sole member in charge of CWDI’s corporate charter. So whoever gets that job can say, here are the new rules. You’re going to be more transparent. You’re going to be responsive to the public, you’re going to report to the council.
JK
That alone suggests that this could be probably the most important issue in this election, if not certainly one of the top few. At any rate, I would imagine.
JB
Well, we’ll soon find out. Voting happens on Saturday, and if nobody gets 50% of the vote in any of the races, it will go to a runoff. Well, speaking of running off, it’s time for us to be running off, and I want to thank you, Josh. We’ll have to compare notes again down the road.
JK
Thanks for inviting me on, Jim. I appreciate it.
JB
You can find Josh Kurtz and the rest of the writers on MarylandMatters.org. That’s it for Cambridge inside out here on Midshore Midday.
