An intriguing dark horse contender is Kerry J. Davidson, 47, a Stanford- and Harvard-educated lawyer who is exactly the kind of person Baltimore needs to attract. Pushed out of the Washington area by high housing prices, he found and fell in love with a former drug house that he bought and set about fixing up. He's also the kind of person Baltimore too often seems intent on driving out through sheer, maddening bureaucratic frustration. His own experiences in trying to navigate City Hall give him a keen sense of how user-unfriendly Baltimore can be, and he would bring to the council a zeal for making sure the city gets out of the way of the many people who are trying to make the city better.