 City leaders , including Howard P. Rawlings , a member of the Maryland House of Delegates , and William Donald Schaefer , the Comptroller of Maryland and Schmoke 's predecessor as mayor , feared that none of the potential candidates had the vision to continue the urban renewal that took place under Schmoke and Schaefer . They hoped that Baltimore @-@ native Kweisi Mfume , the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) , would run . Mfume had previously served on the Baltimore City Council and in the United States House of Representatives . Schmoke called the race " his to lose " . However , Mfume lived in nearby Catonsville , Maryland , and did not move into Baltimore until March , which would leave him short of the one year residency requirement . 
