Senate candidate Kaufmanin serious, stable condition

BALTIMORE — U.S. Senate candidate A. Robert Kaufman was in serious but stable condition yesterday after having been stabbed several times Monday in his home in West Baltimore.

A tenant at Mr. Kaufman’s home told The Washington Times that the perennial Democratic candidate was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and upper torso during a robbery.

However, police suspected a landlord-tenant dispute was a motive for the attack. They searched yesterday for a man who could be one of Mr. Kaufman’s tenants but said they were not ready to call the man a suspect.

Detective Donnie Moses said Mr. Kaufman, 74, has indicated to police that he can describe his attacker or identify him in a lineup. However, he remained on a respirator and was unable to talk to investigators.

Detective Moses said he was confident there would be an arrest in the case.

A socialist activist, Mr. Kaufman has run unsuccessfully for nearly every office from Baltimore City Council to president of the United States. His long-shot campaigns primarily provide a forum for his political views, such as his opposition to the war on drugs and the war on terror.

In a debate during his 2003 run for mayor of Baltimore, Mr. Kaufman quipped that, if he were elected, his first official act would be to call for a recount.

He is seeking the Democratic nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, also a Democrat.

Two of his opponents for the nomination — U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — condemned the violence against Mr. Kaufman.

?It is just the sort of thing that works against the community no matter where the community may be,? said Mr. Mfume, who planned to visit Mr. Kaufman at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Mr. Cardin said the stabbing was a ?horrible act of violence,? and that he hopes the attacker is caught and held responsible.

The FBI has released statistics showing a surge in violent crime last year in Baltimore and decreases in most other large cities.

The number of aggravated assaults reported in Baltimore rose 12.3 percent, from 6,370 in 2003 to 7,159. In the District, aggravated assaults decreased 13.8 percent, from 4,482 in 2003 to 3,863 in 2004.

?There is a lot of crime, especially around here,? said George A. Silver, 44, a tenant in one of several first-floor apartments at Mr. Kaufman’s large Victorian house. ?People getting shot, people getting killed — that’s everyday life to me. … It’s a survival game.?