For Berry, running second in the polls, Morrissey inhabits a parallel universe. With his many years in local government and booster organizations, Berry is systems-oriented, seemingly wedded to civics book solutions.

He usually works with plutocrats and opinion leaders, white and black, and now is working — check his new television ad — to depict himself as the can-do fellow next door. Berry peddles collaboration when confrontation is the preferred course in politics.

That plays to Morrissey’s advantage. Trump-like, Morrissey gets more mileage suggesting how bad things are than promising how good they can be. It’s a message easily advanced by an outsider in a city where uneven economic growth and demographic change is affirming for African-Americans on the South Side and East End what they believe they’ve always been: outsiders.

Baliles is no newcomer to the current iteration of Richmond government, but his image is that of the arriviste. A Richmond native, Baliles worked in the Wilder mayoralty before his election to City Council four years ago.

That Baliles is low key means he is upstaged by a political thespian such as Morrissey. That Baliles is seen as requiring more seasoning means he is viewed as biting off more than he can chew.