Fed up with being left out of the debate, Republican and Green party candidates in Tuesday’s general election urge voters to remember that not only Democrats are vying for office in overwhelmingly blue Baltimore.

“I fault the news. When you have a two-party system, you’re supposed to give each party equal attention,” said Elbert Henderson, a Republican candidate competing against Sheila Dixon for mayor.

Some of the eight non-Democratic candidates readily concede their slim odds of winning: The last time Baltimore elected a Republican mayor was four decades ago.

A D.C. corrections administrator, Henderson, 57, captured 12 percent of the votes when he ran against Martin O’Malley in 2004. This time his platform is converting 40,000 abandoned homes into affordable housing and railing against slots.

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Bill Barry is a self-described angry citizen running as a Green Party candidate against incumbent Robert Curran for the District 3 city council seat.

“We have to rethink everything we have to do in the city,” said Barry, director of labor studies at the Community College of Baltimore.

Calling for more focus on dilapidated neighborhoods, Barry, 65, wants to unseat the Curran family “dynasty.”

Campaigning in support of school vouchers and lower property taxes, Mark Newgent wants to unseat Mary Pat Clarke in District 14.

“It’s really about ideas and to get them in the mix,” said Newgent, 33, an editor at a public health journal. “... Right now we are just banging our heads against the wall.”

Brian Davis, a Republican who works for the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, said if he loses against Nicholas D’Adamo Jr. in District 2, he will continue fighting an “incumbent bias” by recruiting candidates in each district.

“There are no fresh ideas,” he said. “The city seems to be in a steady slow decline.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com

smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com