On Tuesday night, across America, the David Smiths of the world were having their way. The election results came in slowly and were turning red, even in the cities. But in Baltimore Smith was being dealt a tremendous blow.

Baltimore County media mogul latest political project, a electoral measure to reduce the size of the City Council, was rejected at the polls.

It had been widely assumed that Smith’s H question would pass. Ballot measures in Baltimore almost always do. The Baltimore Sun, owned by Smith, had run several full-page ads in support of the measure and published a week-long series of articles aimed at examining whether City Council members were “effective.” Smith’s television station, WBFF Fox45, literally went around the city and invited residents to attack the city’s leadership on camera. Privately, councilors were bracing for a loss.

But on a night when the nation anointed a president promising to squeeze out “bloated federal bureaucracy” Baltimoreans stood their ground. Known as Question H, Smith’s ballot measure was outperformed by nearly 25 percentage points, a figure that could change as more votes are counted. It was the first time in 20 years that city voters rejected a ballot question.

More importantly, according to members of a broad opposition coalition, the results sent a message to Smith that, no matter how much money he spends or how much favorable coverage his media properties give his issues, Baltimore can’t be bought off so easily.

“It means we can defeat the people who have unlimited airtime, unlimited printing and apparently money,” Mayor Brandon Scott said at a somber news conference Wednesday morning at City Hall. “All we have to do is tell the truth to our residents and communicate with them the right way.”

Smith did not respond to emails seeking comment.

In the run-up to the referendum vote, City Council members often avoided criticizing Smith, sticking instead to political arguments against reducing representation. But members seemed emboldened, even joyful, when the results began coming in Tuesday night.

“He’s rich, but I don’t know if he’s smart,” Councilman Ryan Dorsey said of Smith.

Question H wasn’t Smith’s first loss this year. Two high-profile candidates in the Democratic primary — former Mayor Sheila Dixon and outgoing Councilman Eric Costello — received money from Smith.

The move to reduce City Hall upped the ante. If it had been successful, it would have shown that a wealthy person could fundamentally change the way the city is governed with a relatively small amount of money; Campaign finance reports detailing spending at the end of the election have not been released, but Smith likely spent less. more than $600,000 in the effort dating back to 2023.

Instead, it gave the City Council and Scott something they hadn’t yet had: a common boogeyman. The factions united. The unions gave money. Even the Green Party got in on the action. The incoming councilors learned to work together. They had to do it, because otherwise six of their jobs would be ruined in four years.

“It was kind of a gift that David Smith and the proponents of the bill gave to this city,” said Zac Blanchard, who narrowly unseated Costello in May.

But he opposition campaign It took a while to ramp up, said Jermaine Jones, who upset a veteran East Baltimore councilman in May and cruised to victory in Tuesday’s general election.

Jones said voters showed little enthusiasm about the measure when he knocked on doors during a canvassing event in September in Northeast Baltimore. But he became more confident in Question H’s demise on Sunday, he said, when voters he met were more aware.

The election results showed the coalition is getting stronger, Jones said. The mail-in ballots were almost evenly split for and against Question H. But as volunteers parked at the polls and spoke to voters, the momentum shifted. Early and Election Day voters overwhelmingly rejected the measure.

The Baltimore City Not for Sale campaign recruited more than 300 volunteers, knocked on 3,000 doors, dropped 15,000 pieces of literature and spoke to 45 community groups, according to a Tuesday night news release celebrating its unlikely victory. Claudia Leight, a volunteer, said Wednesday that the coalition also did text banking, appeared at farmers markets and contacted religious leaders to help spread the message.

But some voters said they voted against the question not because of who supported it but because of what it said.

Ronald Carter had a “gut feeling” at the polls, the 62-year-old from East Baltimore said Tuesday night, and voted to keep the size of the council as is.

Pamela Hursey of Northwest Baltimore had a similar reaction when reading the question Tuesday. Hursey, 57, a proud Democrat who voted blue up and down the ticket, said she found the premise wanting.

“We need all the help we can get,” he said of the council. She voted against.

Compared to Smith and his allies, the coalition spent relatively little money on the countereffort, said Roger Hartley, dean of the School of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. Although the momentum was in Smith’s favor, he said, voters may have felt the proposed cuts to the council went too far.

However, Smith may not retire from Baltimore politics, Hartley added. A previous ballot question sponsored by Smith on term limits passed in 2022. It has also I tried and failedto include recall elections on the ballot. You may feel like you got your money’s worth this time, Hartley said.

“I could tell it started a big argument,” Hartley said. “It can be like, ‘Oh, this is a loss, but I made people have to organize, spend money and make an effort.'”

A group called People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement, or PEACE, is tasked with outreach and organization of Smith’s ballot questions; He has been their only source of financing. PEACE President Jovani Patterson, who once ran for council president as a Republican, acknowledged that he could have campaigned better in support of Question H. There was little traditional campaigning beyond newspaper ads and coverage diffused in the media controlled by Smith.

The city’s elected officials have done a “fantastic job” of making Smith a villain, Patterson said.

“When you read his writings and hear some of the things he says, it comes from a desire to help Baltimore. Of course, for some reason, being rich is bad. It’s bad to be rich. Frankly, it’s bad to be white in a place like Baltimore,” said Patterson, who is black.

And the Rev. Alvin Hathaway, a high school classmate of Smith’s at City College, argued that Smith has been wrongly portrayed in Baltimore, saying his colleague has lofty ideals that have motivated his political involvement.

Hathaway, whose nonprofit Beloved Community Services Corp. received $290,000 from the David D. Smith Foundation in 2020, said in an interview this year that she has seen Smith invest in the Black community and Black entrepreneurs, and she doesn’t. He sees himself as an ideologue, as do many others in Baltimore. Although Hathaway disagreed with Smith on Question H, she did not blame him for using democratic processes to advance it.

“You need all perspectives at the table,” Hathaway said. “It’s just that he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is.”

Patterson did not specifically outline future plans for PEACE, but indicated that the group would return.

“You live, you learn and you take notes for next time,” he said. “There is always a next time.”