Jack Young announced Tuesday that he would seek his first full term as mayor of Baltimore next year rather than go with his original plan to run for his old job as president of the City Council.
Young led the City Council in the spring when Mayor Catherine Pugh was engulfed by a scandal over the massive payments she received for a crummy series of self-published children's books. Young, who was first in line to succeed Pugh, said before she resigned that he would only serve out the remainder of her term and would not make a bid for his own four years in office.
Pugh resigned in May and Young became mayor, but he began to publicly discuss seeking a full term in July. Young explained that he had made an agreement with City Council Vice President Sharon Middleton where she would replace him as Council president and, at the completion of Young's term, the pair would then run for their previous positions. However, Councilman Brandon Scott unanimously won a Council vote to succeed Young as president, upending Young's arrangement with Middleton.
Young openly acknowledged in the summer that this turnabout led to his reconsideration, saying that "Sharon and I had an agreement. And then this thing with Brandon, it threw off the plan." Scott announced last month that he would run for mayor rather than try to stay on as head of the Council.
Young, Scott, and former state Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah are all running in the April Democratic primary, where it takes just a simple plurality to win; the Democratic nominee should have no trouble prevailing in the general election in this very blue city. Several other local politicians have also expressed interest in running ahead of the January filing deadline.
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