Saturday, August 8, 2020
Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young’s spokesman, Lester Davis, left in photo with Mayor Young, is departing City Hall for a position with SKDKnickerbocker as VP-public affairs in SKDK’s Washington, D.C., office.
Davis’s move follows Young’s defeat in the June primary. Young took over the mayor’s job following the resignation of former Mayor Catherine Pugh in 2019 in connection with fraud and tax evasion over a children’s book series she authored and sold.
In the Democratic primary, Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott defeated a crowded field of candidates including Young, Sheila Dixon, T.J. Smith, Mary Miller and Thiru Vignarajah.
Scott will take on Republican Shannon Wright in the November election.
Young, who ended up in fifth place, took office last year after the former mayor was forced to resign in May 2019 amid a scandal over fraudulent sales of her Healthy Holly children’s book series. Pugh later pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion, fraud, and conspiracy charges and, in February, was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Davis had worked with Young for more than decade, which included Young’s time as city council president.
Earlier, Davis was director of communications at Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, director of development at CORE Philly (College Opportunity Resources for Education) and a reporter at the Palm Beach Post. In 2005 and 2006 he was a reporter with The Gazette in Upper Marlboro, Md.
Photo: Baltimore Sun