Ahead of the general election in Baltimore yesterday, two ballot measures faced organized opposition – one to reduce the number of City Council districts from 14 to 8 and the other to allow multi-family dwellings at the Inner Harbor waterfront.

The foes of council-cutting Question H and critics of apartment-tower-enabling Question F were visibly active in recent weeks, holding events and working the polls in their “Vote No on H” and “F-No!” tee shirts.

So why did Question H go down in a historic 62%-38% defeat – the first ballot measure failing to win voter approval in over 20 years  – while Question F succeeded by a 60%-40% margin?

The person who exclusively bankrolled Question H – David D. Smith, executive chairman of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and majority owner of the Baltimore Sun –  sunk $415,000 into the effort to collect the minimum 10,000 signatures necessary to get the charter amendment onto the ballot.

Then last February, he simply stopped paying, campaign records on file with the state show.

A fund balance of more than $75,000 dwindled to just $201.98 in the bank by mid October, with the money going to lawyers from DLA Piper and a Towson-based consulting firm.

“I don’t think his group did anything to try to actually go out and campaign for it,” marveled Andy Ellis, a member of the city’s Charter Review Commission and leader of one of the coalitions dedicated to stopping the Question H proposal.

“I didn’t see any pro-on-H signs,” Ellis said. “And there were no ‘pro on H’ people out there. We were covering the polls the whole time, so we would have seen them.”

On Facebook today, Ellis chided Jovani Patterson – the chair of People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement (PEACE), Question H’s political committee – for dropping the ball after getting the measure onto the ballot.

“You had a bottomless pit of money,” Ellis said, but “you didn’t do almost anything because that’s all you thought you had to do.”

“I own it, my friend,” Patterson replied. “I can’t demand accountability without being accountable.”

In an interview with The Brew, the chair of PEACE sounded resigned. “When the bureaucracy was challenged, they came out in full force. The people of Baltimore spoke and ultimately the status quo won.”

Democratic Dominance

The two ballot questions offered some local political drama in a year when the national results, a Republican sweep of Washington led by the re-election of Donald Trump, riveted the world.

Statewide Democrats could take comfort in Angela Alsobrooks’ victory over former Republican Governor Larry Hogan to become Maryland’s first Black female U.S. senator.

As for Mayor Brandon Scott, it was preordained that he would be elected to a second term by the results of the May Democratic primary, where he defeated former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

With a scattering of obscure Republican candidates on the ballot, Zeke Cohen became City Council president, and Bill Henry was re-elected city comptroller unopposed.

All of the winners in the Democratic Council primary races also racked up lopsided victories on Tuesday.

Scott crowed about the defeat of Question H and the success of Question F at his press availability today, calling them “major wins” against “a lot of critics, a lot of money and a lot of lies.”

His remarks underscored another reason for the outcome of the two ballot campaigns.

Scott and six Council members, bolstered heavily by labor unions, raised $165,000 for the “Stop Sinclair” ballot committee. Formed earlier in the year, the Baltimore City Not for Sale group – a coalition of unions and community activists – knocked on 3,000 doors, distributed 15,000 pieces of literature, presented to 45 community groups and lined up more than 300 volunteers to staff the early voting sites and election day polls.

At the same time, the mayor and the same electeds either enthusiastically supported Question F or remained carefully quiet about it amid support from Governor Wes Moore and other leading state Democrats.

A Villain and a Hero

Another reason for the difference in the outcomes of the two ballot question efforts:

Question H had an easily identifiable villain – “a MAGA millionaire,” as Scott called Smith today – and a punchy slogan, “Baltimore City is Not For Sale.” (Gobbling up the city’s daily newspaper and heavily underwriting Sheila Dixon’s campaign, Smith’s appetite for political clout is well-known.)

Question F was pitched differently:

As the effort by developer P. David Bramble, a homegrown “West Baltimore boy,” in Scott’s words, to give back to the city by replacing the now-moribund Harborplace pavilions with a glistening apartment tower and an architecturally ambitious “sail-shaped” commercial/retail building.

A political committee picked up steam as Election Day approached, stoked by a $240,000 contribution from MCB Real Estate, Bramble’s company, in early October. (That amount is sure to have grown; the total spent by the developer won’t be known until mid-November.)

Controlled by MCB employees and close associates, the “Baltimore for a New Harborplace” committee peppered residents with robocalls, robotexts, splashy signs and online media buys, and paid workers to distribute leaflets in neighborhoods and at the polls.

Grassroots opposition to Bramble’s effort to amend the city charter to allow apartments and commercial structures at the Inner Harbor Park had a significant impact, picking up 63,000 votes.

But it was no match for the 95,000 voters who approved the charter change, which will clear the way for Bramble to tear down the “festival marketplace” pavilions pioneered by James Rouse.

Still, opponents of his sprawling rebuild have not given up.

“An important message was sent by the thousands of votes cast against F,” Inner Harbor Coalition’s Michael Brassert asserted today.

“Our group calls for a public process, rather than a secretive back room deal and process, to arrive at a creative reinvention of Harborplace to serve all residents of our city and beyond,” he continued.

Critics say they’ll try again in 2026 with another ballot measure to repeal the one that just passed.

“We always knew defeating a ballot question was a steep climb,” another group, Protect Our Parks, noted in a separate statement. “We are not discouraged and will stick with our plan to protect all city parks.”