Alderwoman faces first primary challenge
Annapolis incumbent facing former District 30 club president
Rhonda Pindell-Charles picked her way through debris and downed tree branches along the West Street business corridor Thursday, inspecting the damage from a tornado that ripped through Annapolis the day before.
She warned property owners of getting scammed by fake contractors looking to make money. In her more than six decades of living in the Parole community she has never seen anything like this, she said — dozens of buildings destroyed, more in need of significant repair, and many residents displaced.
The Ward 3 alderwoman, who has represented the westernmost ward since 2013, hopes to be a part of the long-term rebuilding effort. But first, she is facing her first contested primary since she won the seat. She will take on a well-funded Democratic challenger in Keanuú Smith-Brown in the Sept. 21 Democratic primary.
Smith-Brown, the 26-year-old former president of the District 30 Democratic Club, has been active at all levels of politics for about a decade, first working on an Annapolis mayoral campaign as a teenager and later helping Democratic campaigns, including for 2018 gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous and Bernie Sanders’ presidential run in 2016. He attended the University of Baltimore, where he earned a degree in government and public policy in 2017.
On Thursday, a few blocks away from West Street, Smith-Brown organized a hot food distribution event in Annapolis Walk for residents impacted by the tornado, some of whom lost power and were put up in hotels for the night. He strode through the community to knock on doors and encourage people to grab a hot meal from the Carolyn L. Butler Community Center.
Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, his invited guest, joined him on the walk. Franchot, who is running for governor, has endorsed Smith-Brown’s campaign.
Smith-Brown has been campaigning relentlessly since he announced his candidacy in February on a message of change for Ward 3. His campaign centers on increasing educational opportunities for young people, modulating the budget toward greener and more sustainable initiatives, public safety reforms and a host of other progressive initiatives.
He has sought to increase his name recognition in the ward where he grew up through door-knocking, community events and videos in which he explains his position on policing, environmental protection and other issues.
“I am asking for trust,” he said. “You have to trust that change actually will come from what I am sharing with you or what I said I will do. If you don’t trust us then you’ll be left with what you have currently, which is no change at all.”
The work has paid dividends as he has racked up more than $17,500 in donations, third-most among all council candidates. Pindell-Charles, by contrast, has raised $5,400 since last year, adding to about $8,200 left over from prior campaigns.
Pindell-Charles has taken a more reserved approach.
Since she announced her reelections plans in April, the retired Baltimore City prosecutor, who now works for the Anne
Arundel County school system, has distributed paper door hangers to the dozen or so neighborhoods in her ward: Parole, Parole Heights, Annapolis Gardens, Admiral Oaks, Forest Villa, Bywater and others.
Each door hanger has a personalized list of accomplishments for each community, such as securing funding for a stoplight at a dangerous intersection at West Street and Gibralter Avenue or shepherding an affordable housing development to completion next to Monarch Academy.
The strategy has paid off thus far, she said. People approach her at her house to thank her for the work she has done.
“That’s not my comfort zone,” PindellCharles said of more traditional outreach efforts like door-knocking. “Some people do it and are successful. I don’t feel comfortable, because either people are eating dinner or they’re in the middle of something. Call me anytime. Call me two in the morning, it doesn’t matter.”
Campaign priorities
One of the most urgent priorities for the winning candidate will be how to help business owners and residents get back on their feet after the devastating tornado that touched down along West Street.
On Wednesday, Pindell-Charles will take part in a town hall meeting hosted by the city to help connect residents who need assistance to available resources in the tornado’s aftermath.
For Smith-Brown, maintaining that communication with community members will be key to the recovery effort.
“Because we can’t control a natural disaster, it’s how we react to it,” he said.
Like most council candidates, public safety is another area of focus for both Ward 3 hopefuls.
Pindell-Charles, the chair of the Public Safety standing committee, views the issue through a broad lens of ensuring residents are healthy, well-educated and have access to resources, all of which contribute to a safer city.
She has been a staunch ally to Police Chief Ed Jackson since he was named the city’s top cop in 2019 and has preached patience as he continues to implement a community policing model predicated on building relationships between police officers and community members.
Smith-Brown wants to see reforms that he says will help make the city safer such as investing more money in crisis response and social workers, offering training for police to respond to mental health incidents and making sure officers live in the city they work. It’s a strategy he admits will take years to achieve.
“People won’t feel connected to our law enforcement if they are not [living] nearby,” he said. “We have to incentivize that.”
During her time on the council, PindellCharles has made sure to represent the desires of her constituents, particularly those in the Greater Parole Community Association.
In January, after Alderman DaJuan Gay, D-Ward 6, introduced a bill to legalize medical cannabis dispensaries in the city, Pindell-Charles voted against the bill based on feedback from community members. She introduced several amendments to reduce the number of shops selling medical marijuana in the city; eventually, the bill was defeated.
Pindell-Charles prides herself on her organization. She regularly sends out updates on accomplishments over her eight years in office and, at the end of each year, updates a 25-page document that details her work as alderwoman, from the number of miles she has traveled to events to the number of individual constituent concerns she responded to in a given year (419 in 2019).
In another term on the council — likely her last — Pindell-Charles hopes to oversee projects including the installation of a transit center at the Annapolis Mall and funding for a study of the intersection of Chinquapin Round Road and Aris T. Allen Boulevard.
“I have to distinguish myself from my opponent. I know the community. I’ve been successful,” she said.