 City leaders , including Howard P. Rawlings , a member of the Maryland House of <unk> , 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 <unk> Mfume , the president of the National Association for the Advancement of <unk> 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 <unk> , Maryland , and did not move into Baltimore until March , which would leave him short of the one year <unk> requirement . 
