Mayor Brandon Scott’s name turned up in an unexpected place Monday night: on a posterboard of endorsers at a Mount Vernon fundraiser for Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates. The visual was a jaw‑dropper around City Hall, since the mayor and the city’s top prosecutor have spent months trading public shots at each other.
The poster, which listed Scott among a slate of local and statewide backers, was displayed at the Mount Vernon campaign event, according to The Baltimore Banner. The outlet reported that the board also featured other prominent Democrats and that spokespeople for both Scott and Bates declined to weigh in on the display.
From Public Feud To Public Poster
The apparent détente arrives after a very public rift between Bates and Scott that flared late last year, when Bates announced he would cut off coordination with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). An independent legal review prepared for the mayor’s office later described Bates’ Brady‑imputation concerns as “misplaced,” a conclusion reported by The Daily Record.
Election Context
Bates has filed to run for another term as Baltimore City State’s Attorney and, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections candidate list, currently appears as the only candidate listed for the office in Baltimore City. That status makes any visible sign of support from the mayor notable, even if Bates ends up with no primary challenger on the ballot. The filings are publicly available on the state election site.
Campaigns Stayed Silent
Spokespeople for both Scott and Bates had nothing to say about the poster, The Baltimore Banner reported. Bates is no stranger to attention‑grabbing political moves. In 2024, he endorsed and appeared alongside former mayoral candidate Sheila Dixon, a team‑up covered at the time by WBAL.
What Comes Next
It remains unclear whether Scott’s listing on the board reflects a formal, signed endorsement or was simply part of the campaign decor for a night of fundraising. If the mayor does make a formal endorsement, it could cool some of the political friction between the two, but the underlying disputes over MONSE and prosecution strategy are still out in the open. Those disagreements have drawn scrutiny from city officials and legal observers, as The Baltimore Sun has detailed.
Legal Angle
Bates’ earlier threat of litigation and the tug‑of‑war over information‑sharing revolved around technical Brady disclosure issues that have legal analysts debating the finer points. As The Daily Record reported, the opinion commissioned by the mayor’s office argued that Bates’ approach to imputation pushed the legal theory further than many attorneys accept, suggesting any lawsuit would be wading into relatively untested legal territory.
For now, that fundraiser posterboard stands as the clearest public sign that the relationship between Scott and Bates may have thawed, at least for one evening. City Hall watchers will be looking for any formal statements from the mayor or Bates’ campaign that confirm whether this was a genuine endorsement or just another night of Baltimore politics.
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