Maryland Politics -- Mfume makes the Front Page

David Wissing over at Hedgehog Report thinks that there is a conspiracy among Democratic Party leaders and major media outlets [WaPo and the Baltimore Sun] to trash senatorial candidate Kweisi Mfume. I'm beginning to think he's right. She who shall not be named informs me that today the Baltimore Sun featured a front-page above the fold story on allegations that Mfume was guilty of inappropriate behavior toward women while he was President of the NAACP.

Pattern of abuse claims at NAACP kept quiet

Mfume, supporters deny any impropriety at office

By Kelly Brewington, Ivan Penn and Greg Barrett

Sun Staff

Originally published May 8, 2005

The same day in May 1999 that Kweisi Mfume abruptly announced that he would not be a candidate for mayor, an internal investigative memo was sent to top officers of the NAACP describing allegations of Mfume's mistreatment of female subordinates at the organization's Baltimore headquarters.

For the next five years, the civil rights organization - still recovering from the 1994 sex scandal under former Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis - kept that memo secret and did nothing more, even as Mfume refused to answer any questions from the board's lawyers about the allegations.

But in an internal report last year, more serious accusations were made against the former Baltimore congressman, alleging that sexual harassment and favoritism festered for years within the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Within months of the completion of this 2004 investigation into his leadership, Mfume resigned as president - but, sources say, not before every board member had signed a confidentiality pledge.

The two written reports, as well as interviews with people both inside and outside the NAACP, provide a detailed look at an organization struggling to remain the pre-eminent voice on civil rights while trying to avoid another public embarrassment within its top leadership.

Mfume, 56, and many of his supporters categorically deny any impropriety at the NAACP and say that the recent disclosure of confidential internal documents is part of a broad conspiracy against his recently announced campaign to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes.

"There are inaccuracies, in my opinion," Mfume said in a phone call to The Sun. "It's clear these are unsubstantiated, unproven allegations from one employee to the board."

Read the whole thing here.

I still think that this is just a case of a newspaper with rapidly declining circulation grabbing onto and featuring a juicy story and that the sleaze slinging is just Maryland Democratic politics as usual.

Ah, Maryland, my Maryland...