Langford focuses on Nov., not past

ATLANTIC CITY - When former Mayor Lorenzo Langford stares out at the Atlantic from his town's famed Boardwalk, it's not the vastness of the sea that makes his political worries and concern about the future of this gambling resort seem smaller.

Those insights come from a place deeper than the ocean.

Langford, 52, was the victor this month in a bitter Democratic mayoral primary in which all three contenders traded accusations of untrustworthiness and ethical laxity.

Because Atlantic City Democrats outnumber Republicans, 11-1, odds are good that he also will defeat GOP candidate John McQueen in November.

If Langford prevails, his victory will be hard-won.

More than any issue the city faces - including rising unemployment, the first drop in casino revenue in 30 years, and more than $10 billion in new resort development that hangs in the balance - the primary campaign focused on nagging questions about an $850,000 settlement that Langford and City Council President William "Speedy" Marsh received.

The payment came from a 1999 civil suit in which the men said their jobs with the city school system had been eliminated in political retaliation.

The state Supreme Court subsequently overturned the settlement, which it called "infected with conflicts of interest," and told Langford and Marsh to pay back the money.

Langford said his share was $193,000 after legal fees were deducted.

He has repaid about $26,000 and will start chiseling away at the balance when a Superior Court judge puts him on a payment schedule this month, he said.

The council had negotiated a $1 million settlement in 2001, but then-Mayor James Whelan - a lame duck whom Langford had just defeated - refused to sign off on it before leaving office. As a result, Langford took over in 2002 with the suit pending.

The delay, during which the council agreed to the reduce settlement, set the stage for what seemed like a conflict of interest, Langford said. Questions about the payment dogged him during his unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2005.

The circumstance has left a bad taste in his mouth, Langford said.

"I resent the perception that I stole money or I did something wrong," he said in an interview on historic Garden Pier last week. "I think what's happened is inherently unfair and has become political fodder that I think a lot of voters obviously could see right through."

Known during his first administration for his GQ suit-and-tie style, Langford said he now wore a cloak of grief he cannot shed.

In 2003, he and his wife, Nynell, lost their youngest child, 4-year-old Mariah, to a rare genetic disorder known as Trisomy 13. She had been ill since birth.

"Her life and her death have influenced me in ways that I now carry with me every day," said Langford, who with his wife also has two sons, Elijah, 15, and Isaiah, 10.

"Our family's experience with her makes a lot of what goes on politically seem very small, very unimportant. It has allowed me to better focus on what is important in this life," he said.

In Atlantic City, where elections are rarely about traditional issues such as property taxes and development, negative rhetoric is a tradition.

"Whatever they want to say about me doesn't get to me any more. I just trust in the Lord and go on," said Langford, who appeared relaxed for the interview, wearing a red exercise suit, a baseball cap, and sneakers.

The winner in the fall will serve the final year of Robert Levy's mayoral term. Levy, who narrowly beat Langford, resigned in November after admitting he falsely obtained veterans pension payments.

One of Langford's competitors in the primary was Mayor Scott Evans, whom the local Democratic organization appointed to replace Levy until an election could be held.

Langford, who had been working as as a self-employed government communications and public relations consultant, said he had taken on Evans and Domenic Cappella, Levy's business administrator, because he felt he had unfinished business from his previous time in office.

"I feel I have a lot to offer the citizens of this community, a voice for their concerns and interests," said Langford, who was born and raised in Atlantic City and held jobs at several casinos, including one as a pit boss at the Trump Taj Mahal.

He was elected to the City Council in 1994 but gave up the seat to comply with the state Casino Control Act, which prohibits casino employees from holding a city or state public office.

He then got a job as public information coordinator for the city school district. That was the job, he said, that his political foes eliminated.

Langford said his casino background and mayoral experience uniquely qualified him to lead the city again.

When he first held the office, Langford said, "we were in the midst of a budget crisis created by the Whelan administration. We cut the city's debt by $30 million and cut the number of city employees that had ballooned up to 2,000 in previous administration down to about 1,600."

Langford said his political foes had created the myth that he was anti-casino.

He acknowledged that he had opposed the casino tunnel project - ultimately built in 2001 - when he was on the City Council because it cut through a predominantly African American community. He also voted against giving a tract to Steve Wynn, a parcel the casino mogul then sold for millions to developers of the Borgata project.

"But I worked with the casinos to bring beach bars to Atlantic City, which was a move that brought us from the bottom of the pack of resorts to being named one of the top resorts by Travelocity.com and other travel groups," Langford said.

Atlantic City's beaches and Boardwalk are its "crown jewels," and they need continual promotion and improvement, he said. If he is elected, he said, tax relief for residents and improved public safety will be high priorities.

"My job will be, as it was in the past, to look out for the residents of this city," Langford said. "To be their advocate."