Martin O'Malley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the journalist, see Martin O'Malley (journalist).

Martin O'Malley
Image:OMalleySpeech.jpg
61^st Governor of Maryland
Incumbent
Assumed office January 17, 2007 -
Lieutenant(s)	Anthony G. Brown
Preceded by	Robert Ehrlich

Born	January 18, 1963 (age 44) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Catherine Curran O'Malley
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is a Democratic politician and the 61^st and current Governor of Maryland. Previously, he served as Mayor of Baltimore City from 1999 to 2007. He attended Our Lady of Lourdes School in Bethesda, Maryland, and then enrolled at Gonzaga College High School located in Washington D.C. [1], graduating in 1981. O'Malley went on to college at The Catholic University of America and then to law school at the University of Maryland School of Law.

1 Political development
2 Mayor of Baltimore City
3 Governor of Maryland
- 3.1 2006 Gubernatorial elections
- 3.2 Term as Governor
4 Family
5 In Other Media
6 Sources
7 Notes
8 Electoral history
9 External links

[edit] Political development

In December of 1982, O'Malley, while still in college, signed on with the Gary Hart for President campaign. In late 1983, O'Malley volunteered to go to Iowa. He phone-banked, organized volunteers, and even played guitar and sang [2] at small fundraisers and other events. Hart was the surprising runner-up in the caucus, and O'Malley headed to other states such as Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Initially polling at 1%, Hart rose to become the biggest challenger to Walter Mondale. Hart became the “new ideas” candidate, but eventually lost the nomination.

O'Malley finished college at The Catholic University of America in 1985. Later that year he enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, earning his JD in 1988 and passing the bar that same year.

In 1986, while in law school, O'Malley was named by then-Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski as her state field director for her successful primary and general election campaigns for the U.S. Senate. Later he served as a legislative fellow in Senator Mikulski’s office from 1987-1988. Senator Mikulski is the first woman elected to the Senate from the State of Maryland.

In 1988, he began dating his future wife, Catherine Curran, the daughter of the State's Attorney General. Later that year, O’Malley was hired as an Assistant State's Attorney for the City of Baltimore. He would hold that position until 1990.

In 1990, O'Malley ran for the Maryland State Senate in District 43. He lost the Democratic Primary to John A. Pica Jr. by 44 votes. [3] A year later he ran for a vacant Baltimore City Council seat to represent the 3rd District. He served from 1991 to 1999. As Councilman, he served as Chairman of the Legislative Investigations Committee and Chairman of the Taxation and Finance Committee.

[edit] Mayor of Baltimore City

O'Malley announced his campaign for Mayor of Baltimore in 1999. He won the Democratic Primary with over 50% of the vote. He was then elected Mayor of Baltimore in the General election with over 90% of the vote. In 2004, O'Malley was re-elected in the general election with 88% of the vote, defeating Republican challenger Elbert (Ray) Henderson.

In O'Malley's first year in office, he adopted a statistics-based tracking system first modeled after "'Compstat,'" which was employed by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to assist the New York City Police Department. O'Malley broadened this results driven government model across all government services. The program shifted Baltimore’s way of “doing government” from an antiquated patronage-based system to a contemporary, high-tech, performance-based system that zeroes in on areas of under-performance, using computerized databases to track targets and results. There is a weekly meeting in which city department managers meet with the Mayor’s office and are brought to task for their results. The power of information technology has been harnessed to manage the complexities of modern urban systems and procedures. CitiStat has saved Baltimore residents more than $350 million. ^[1] In 2004, O'Malley's CitiStat accountability tool won Harvard University’s prestigious Innovations in American Government award [4].

Stained Glass window of Mayor Martin O'Malley.

As one of O’Malley’s top five accomplishments, his administration said that he “cut property taxes to new 30 year low” [5]. On the other hand, "he sought and won an income tax increase which was enacted in 2001".[6] This claim is arguable because while the rate was decreased all of the assessed valued were increased resulting in an overall tax increase which is proven by city budget statistics. [7]

During his first Mayoral campaign, O’Malley’s most prominent campaign promise was to bring down Baltimore’s homicide count to 175. O'Malley claims that Baltimore “has brought about nearly a 40% reduction in violent crime, which leads the nation” [8]. Still, in 2006, Baltimore was ranked the twelfth most dangerous city. This ranking represents a substantial improvement from the previous year, when it was ranked the sixth most dangerous city. ^[2]

Baltimore’s homicide rate continues to be five times that of New York City, which has the lowest crime rate of America's large cities.^[3] To the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Unified Crime Reports for 2000 and 2003, violent crimes -- which include homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault -- in Baltimore (that were reported to law enforcement officials) declined from 16,003 in 2000 (O'Malley's first year in office) to 13,789 in 2003. This only includes reported crimes. There were 261 homicides in Baltimore in 2000; 256 in 2001; 253 in 2002; and 270 in 2003. [9] This has increased to 276 homicides in 2004. In 2005 there was some relief with 269 homicides, however that number was surpassed in December 2006. WJZ News reported "Despite promises to reduce the city's homicide rate, Baltimore's homicide numbers have risen above [2005]'s statistics. With several days left in 2006, Baltimore City Police have recorded 272 homicides this year, three more than [2005]." [10]

[edit] Controversy

However, the crime statistics from Baltimore are disputed. [11][12] Members of the Democratic-controlled Baltimore City Council as well as the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun newspapers have questioned the crime statistics released by the O'Malley administration since they differ with official FBI crime reports. They claim that crime in Baltimore is seriously underreported. The Washington Post, however, characterizes these accusations as coming from "O'Malley's political foes -- Democrat and Republican alike" and says that "[t]o date, no evidence has surfaced of a systemic manipulation of crime statistics."^[4]

O'Malley lauds many of his achievements in the Baltimore City Public School System, stating that his administration has greatly improved schools and that they “are on the mend for the first time in decades.” As one of his five most prominent achievements, O'Malley claims that his administration “improved student test scores across the board.” It is difficult to deny that much more improvement still needs to be made in all aspects of school quality. A national study on the graduation rates in the nation's 50 biggest cities found Baltimore to be second to last with respect to dropout rates (with Detroit in last place). [13]. As the city school system is independently controlled by a board jointly appointed by the mayor and the governor of Maryland, a structure adopted in 1997 as part of litigation in the Federal court system, no single political leader or single level of government (city or state) has responsibility for or authority over the city schools, and it is difficult to hold specific elected officials responsible for either the successes or failures of the city school system. [14]

In 1987, O'Malley was arrested by the Montgomery County, Maryland police and charged with drunk driving. Court records show the charge was eventually dismissed by a judge. [15] The character questionnaire part of the application O'Malley filed with the Maryland Board of Bar Examiners in 1988 to be permitted to take the Maryland bar examination required O'Malley to disclose under penalties of perjury his 1987 arrest for drunk driving. Disclosure of such a charge by an applicant, not just disclosure of convictions, is mandatory under the rules for bar examination applications approved by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the highest court in the state, which, under the state constitution, has the authority to grant a license to practice law in Maryland and to suspend the license or to disbar an attorney for misconduct. In October 2006, during O'Malley's campaign for the office of Governor of Maryland, the 1987 drunk driving arrest became public for the first time when it was reported by the Baltimore Sun newspaper. O'Malley was then asked by the reporters if he had disclosed the arrest to the bar examiners on his character questionnaire. O'Malley said that he did not remember. The Clerk of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, not the office of the Maryland Board of Bar Examiners, has custody of the bar applications of all Maryland lawyers who in the past were admitted to practice in the state by the Court of Appeals. O'Malley refused to authorize the Clerk of the Court of Appeals to release to the media and the public a copy of his 1988 bar application. When the President of the Maryland State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement about ten days before the November 7, 2006, election saying that voters had a right to see a copy of his 1988 application to take the Maryland bar examination, O'Malley ignored him and his campaign staff accused the FOP, which had endorsed the re-election of Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich, of having made their demand for release of the bar application for purely partisan political reasons. The reports during the 2006 gubernatorial election campaign on this matter in the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post never once mentioned the fact that an individual who makes false statements or does not disclose information required by rule of court to be disclosed on a Maryland bar examination application is subject to indictment by a grand jury for the felony crime of perjury. [16][17]

[edit] Media attention

In 2002, Esquire magazine named O’Malley “The Best Young Mayor in the Country,” and in 2005, TIME magazine named him one of America’s “Top 5 Big City Mayors” [18]. In August of 2005, Business Week Magazine Online named O'Malley as one of five "New Faces" in the Democratic Party. Business Week said that O'Malley "has become the party's go-to guy on protecting the homeland. The telegenic mayor has developed a detailed plan for rail and port safety and has been an outspoken critic of White House security priorities." [19]

[edit] Homeland security

In 2003, national Democratic leaders asked him to give the Democratic Response to the President’s weekly radio address in which he spoke about Homeland Security.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Sen. John Kerry invited O'Malley to speak on the topic in Wisconsin. In 2004, O'Malley was one of the featured speakers at the Democratic National Convention in the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts. In his speech, he focused on Homeland Security stating “Sadly and unforgivably almost three years after that fateful day when thousands of moms and dads, sons and daughters didn’t come from work on September 11th, America’s cities and towns, America’s ports and borders and America’s heartland remain needlessly vulnerable” [20]. As the only mayor to speak at the Democratic National Convention, O'Malley proved that he was a “rising star” in the Democratic Party.

In August 2005, O'Malley was invited to speak to the National Press Club to give a mayoral perspective on homeland security issues. Again he criticized the Bush Administration, stating, "In Washington today, the traditional strong defense values of the party of Abraham Lincoln are found only in the words carved on the cold walls of his memorial." O'Malley also stated that increased Homeland Security funding supported the "values of our republic – what former Senator Gary Hart would call 'the Fourth Power' – the moral exponent of our military, economic, and diplomatic powers" [21].

[edit] Governor of Maryland

[edit] 2006 Gubernatorial elections

Main article: Maryland gubernatorial election, 2006

O'Malley was nominated by the Democratic Party to challenge incumbent Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich in the November 2006 election. O'Malley featured the news article “Running early, running hard" [22] on his new web site, launched June 2005. It states, "O'Malley has yet to officially announce his run for governor, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy on the campaign trail."

O'Malley selected Anthony G. Brown, Delegate from Prince George's County, lawyer, and Iraq War veteran, as his running mate. O'Malley was expected to face Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan in the Democratic primary. However, Duncan dropped out of the race on June 22, 2006, citing clinical depression.

Friends of O'Malley also have speculated that he could be a presidential candidate in 2012 [23].

O'Malley defeated incumbent Gov. Ehrlich in the November 7, 2006, gubernatorial election by a 6.5% margin.[24]

[edit] Term as Governor

O'Malley was sworn in as Governor on January 17, 2007. The Maryland Constitution required that he submit the budget proposal, developed jointly by the incoming and outgoing administrations, for the coming fiscal year two days later.

The State of Maryland faces significant fiscal challenges including structural deficits as severe as $5 billion over the next four years. In response, many Maryland lawmakers have suggested overhauling the antiquated tax structure found in Maryland to make it modern, inclusive and fair.^{[citation needed]}

In years past, slot machine gambling has been a heated topic in the General Assembly – both houses in Maryland government. Proponents claim slots could help ease the burden of Maryland's severe structural deficit. O'Malley's predecessor, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. made slot machine gambling a priority from the beginning of his four-year term. However, associated legislation was not passed. O'Malley has said that he supports the implementation of a limited number of slot machines only at horse racing tracks to help sustain the horse racing industry.

Accomplishments in O'Malley's first two months in office include legislation to save the Maryland terrapin [25] and closing a prison [26].

[edit] Family

O'Malley is the son of Tom and Barbara O'Malley. He is married to Catherine Curran O'Malley (Katie); they first met in 1986 while he was working on now-U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski’s primary and general election campaign and she was working on her father J. Joseph Curran, Jr.’s campaign for Attorney General of Maryland. They began to date in 1988 and were married in 1990 during his first (and unsuccessful) campaign for political office.

The couple had their first child, Grace, in 1991. They now live in the governor's mansion in Annapolis with their children, Grace, Tara, William, and Jack. The family had attended St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Baltimore.

O'Malley’s father in law, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., served as Attorney General of Maryland from 1987-2007. Due to a possible inherent conflict of interest in potentially having two close family members at the position of Governor and Attorney General, some had suggested that Curran should step down from his post. Curran decided not to seek reelection on May 7, 2006, citing his age and having accomplished a great deal, rather than his relation to O'Malley. [27]

[edit] In Other Media

O'Malley was the inspiration for the fictional Mayor of Baltimore Tommy Carcetti on the HBO drama The Wire. The Carcetti character is a Caucasian politician in a majority African American city who won against two African American Democratic candidates in the primary election before winning the general election. Also like O'Malley, Carcetti intends to run for Governor of Maryland.

Martin O'Malley appeared in the film Ladder 49 as himself, then-mayor of Baltimore.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Notes

^ "Editorial: Why not a statewide CitiStat?". The Baltimore Examiner. June 6, 2006. URL retrieved 31 March 2007.
^ "DC Ranks High On Most Dangerous City List". W*USA 9. October 30, 2006. URL retrieved March 23, 2007.
^ "San Jose Remains 'Safest Big City in America'". City of San Jose, California. November 21, 2005. URL retrieved March 23, 2007.
^ Wagner, John. "O'Malley Finds Issue Can Cut Both Ways". The Washington Post. March 3, 2006. Page B05. URL retrieved March 23, 2007.

[edit] Electoral history

2006 Maryland Gubernatorial Election

Martin O'Malley (D) 52.2%

Robert Ehrlich (R) (inc.) 46.7%

Ed Boyd (Green) 0.9%

Christopher Driscoll (Populist) 0.1%

[edit] External links

Maryland Office of the Governor Martin O'Malley official state site
National Governors Association - Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley biography
Follow the Money - Martin O'Malley 2006 campaign contributions
On the Issues - Martin O'Malley issue positions and quotes
Project Vote Smart - Governor Martin O'Malley (MD) profile
O'Malley & Brown official campaign site

Preceded by Kurt L. Schmoke	Mayor of Baltimore 1999 – 2007	Succeeded by Sheila Dixon
Preceded by Robert Ehrlich	Governor of Maryland 2007 – present	Incumbent