Martin O'Malley

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

Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American Democratic politician from Maryland, who has served as Mayor of Baltimore City since 1999. He is currently an official candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Maryland in the 2006 elections.

Early life

Martin Joseph O'Malley was born in Georgetown Hospital in the District of Columbia to Tom and Barbara O'Malley. He grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and later in Rockville, Maryland, the eldest son in a family of six children. O'Malley graduated from Gonzaga College High School, a Jesuit school in Washington, D.C. He then attended The Catholic University of America, earning a B.A. in 1985.

Since his college years, O'Malley was the lead singer and guitarist for the Irish-inspired rock band O'Malley's March. However, in 2005, Mr. O'Malley announced that he was officially disbanding O'Malley's March to focus on his Mayoral duties and on his candidacy for the gubernatorial race in the 2006 election.

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 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.

Returning to Maryland in 1984, O'Malley finished college at Catholic University in 1985. Later that year he enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, graduating with a JD in 1988 and passing the bar that same year to become admitted.

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.

In 1988, he began dating his future wife. 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 incumbent John A. Pica Jr.. Although he was winning by five votes on the morning after Election Day, the subsequent absentee ballot count handed the election to his opponent by just 44 votes. A year later he ran for a vacant Baltimore City Council seat to represent the 3rd District and was elected for the first time to political office. 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.

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 91% of the vote.

O'Malley declined to seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002 after pressure from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's supporters.

In 2004, O'Malley was re-elected in the general election with 88% of the vote.

In O'Malley's first year in office, he adopted a statistics-based tracking system first used by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and called it CitiStat. O'Malley expanded its use across all government services and linked it with a personnel performance rating system to grade the performance of government employees. O’Malley and CitiStat won the "Innovations in Government" award from Harvard University.

As one of O’Malley’s top five accomplishments, he claims that his administration “cut property taxes to new 30 year low.” A recent article in the press, “Turnaround for budget raises some suspicions” (see ^*) noted that, “In the span of just 12 months, Baltimore's city government has gone from predicting its worst financial year in decades to realizing its most prosperous stretch in recent memory”, suggesting budgetary maneuvering by city officials that underestimated property tax revenues to influence O'Malley’s election chances the following year.

Crime

O'Malley made public safety the foundation of his campaign for Mayor and it continues to be listed as his number one priority on his web site (see During his first Mayoral campaign, O’Malley’s most prominent campaign promise was to bring down Baltimore’s murder rate. O'Malley states that he “has brought about nearly a 40% reduction in violent crime, which leads the nation” (see New York City, the lowest rate in America's large cities. "Poverty-stricken Baltimore, with its 14,000 empty or abandoned houses, is the small city murder capital of the United States. Baltimore, per 100,000 of population, has six times more murders than New York, three times more than Chicago, and also outranks Washington and Detroit (see [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_35_41/ai_n15341008#continue" target="_blank" >^*).

Several prominent crimes during O'Malley’s tenure have highlighted Baltimore crime problems. In May 2004, three children were brutally killed by decapitation in Northwest Baltimore. The suspects under arrest are two illegal immigrants' relatives who police theorize committed the crime as a warning for not paying off debts to illegal alien smugglers. O'Malley was criticized in the press for lobbying aggressively against legislation that would encourage better federal-state cooperation to apprehend illegal aliens.

Recent FBI reports noted a significant increase in violent crime—defined as murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults—in Baltimore City in the year 2004 (see ^*). The FBI reported that, while violent crime decreased 1.7% across the country, violent crime climbed 4.3% in Baltimore. O'Malley and his police department were surprised at the numbers and initially denied them even though they had supplied the statistics to the FBI. Total crime in the city still declined after a sufficient decrease in property crimes. Through the winter of 2005, homicides slowed to a crawl and eventually fell below the total number at the same time in 2004.

Police Department

Local politicians stated increase in crime could be attributed to too much turmoil within O'Malley’s police department, noting the yearly turnover in police commissioners in O'Malley's term of office. The first of six Commissioners, Bert Shirey was appointed on interim basis in December 1999 and served a month. In January 2000, Ronald L. Daniel was appointed, but resigned two months later after refusing to back O'Malley's crime plan. Edward T. Norris was then appointed in April 2000. He resigned in January 2003 to become supervisor of Maryland State Police and was later convicted and jailed on federal public corruption charges for his actions in Baltimore. John McEntee was an interim appointee, serving one month. Kevin P. Clark was hired in February 2003, suspended in May 2004 after a domestic dispute and, although he returned to work, was fired in November. This resulted in a lawsuit and charges of racism. His replacement is Leonard D. Hamm (see ^*).

In September 2005, it was reported that two Baltimore judges said they don't believe the police officers who investigated gun cases, prompting prosecutors to dismiss charges that could have put two convicted felons behind bars. A review of three months of data compiled by the city state's attorney's office shows that among the 210 Circuit Court cases and 99 District Court cases involving weapons, about 40 were hampered by issues such as police officers' being unable to testify because they were under investigation or had been suspended and legal questions about who possessed a recovered weapon. The judge stated that "There is a strong skepticism in the air about the police" and that "personal experience and common sense" showed the officer to be lying (see ^*).

Schools

O'Malley lauds many of his achievements in the Baltimore City 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.” Critics point out that the city's high school graduation rate is the state's lowest and has not improved during O'Malley's term. O'Malley launched a "Believe in Our Schools" campaign funded by the Crabtown Project, public displays of giant crabs decorated by artists.

Funding

O'Malley prominently claims credit that “Per-pupil spending has increased 14% since 2000, and Baltimore schools have received an unprecedented 37% increase in per capita funding over the last few years, with significant credit going to increased, effective lobbying on the City’s behalf at the state level.” Some people dispute that the increase provided by the Robert Ehrlich Administration resulted from O’Malley’s lobbying effort.

Early in O'Malley's first term, he acknowledged at being inattentive as departed schools chief executive Carmen V. Russo ran up a $58 million deficit. He said that he couldn't get information from Russo about the system's budget or human resources and that he was frustrated about getting "basic numbers" out of Russo (see ^*).

In 2004, with the Baltimore City public school system teetering toward bankruptcy, O'Malley undertook one of his most controversial actions. O'Malley engineered a City Hall bailout to avoid a state rescue that would have cast Republican Gov. Ehrlich as the system's savior. This was highlighted in the Baltimore Sun article "Schools could be a political peril for O'Malley, 2004 bailout now means he bears responsibility" (see ^*).

O'Malley has not supported Ehrlich's proposal to provide additional funding for schools and education through slot machines, some of which would go in Baltimore’s Pimlico racetrack. O'Malley supports slots at race courses and proposes that individual jurisdictions decide whether or not they want slots in their communities. O'Malley opposes the idea of having education rely on slots revenue. His potential Democratic opponent Doug Duncan has criticized O'Malley support for this proposal, but offered no alternative despite promises of improving statewide school improvement, raising the spectre of large tax increases. Ehrlich supporters have said that O'Malley support for slot machines was weak and that he chose not to provide leadership on such an important issue for fear of assisting a Republican Governor.

Test scores

In June 2005, as his gubernatorial campaign was accelerating, O'Malley stated that under his administration, the Baltimore school system was "one of the biggest turnaround stories of any urban school system in the United States of America." Later that month, the Maryland State Board of Education announced that Baltimore schools constitute 22 of the 24 schools in the entire state—the other 2 are in Prince George's County—that have repeatedly failed to make adequate progress on the annual standardized tests mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act and thus are required by the state to restructure for the coming school year (see ^*). The state Board announced that it was subjecting 3 Baltimore Schools, the only ones in the state, to "zero-basing"—one of the most drastic reforms available to school districts, which requires everyone from the principal down to the secretaries to reapply for their jobs.

At the end of August 2005, it was reported that test scores show that three Baltimore high schools have failed to meet standards for so many years that they have moved to the state's most severe category on a watch list for troubled schools, joining nine others. It reported some good news in that Baltimore's high school graduation rate increased from 54% to 59%, but far below the statewide rate of 85%. 30 of the city's 43 high schools are on a federally mandated state watch list as a result of geometry test scores released yesterday, where its pass rate was 51%. Yet the news was worse on the other exams, where the city's pass rates ranged from 22% in algebra to 42% in government. At one high school, 4.8 percent of students passed an algebra assessment test last year; at another, 1.6 percent of students were deemed proficient in math (see ^*).

Special education

In July 2005, Deputy state school Superintendent Ronald Peiffer stated that "City schools are making such slow progress, if any progress at all." and United States District Judge Marvin J. Garbis issued an order to cede authority for the city's special education services to the state as a failing program under No Child Left Behind Act procedures. State officials said nearly 99% of Baltimore's 10th-graders with disabilities failed the state reading test this year, calling Baltimore's special education program "a failure of extraordinary magnitude" (see^*).

Ironically, as the lawyer for the state Board, O'Malley's father-in-law Attorney General J. Joseph Curran officially opposed Baltimore City and stated that the state's reform plan "recognizes the need for clear direction" for the city school system and that "differences will occur that can only be resolved, as a last resort, through a court-ordered dispute resolution process."

City school officials argued that the problem with special education is chronic under-funding of the school system, but Grasmick pointed out that the problem is managerial and not financial, as more than $4 million in federal money for special education that the school system received last school year was not spent. In August 2005, a U.S. District Court judge criticized the city schools' hastily presented plan to reform the schools, calling it a "handshake contract" that was "cobbled together by counsel on horseback" (see ^*). After cataloging the city schools' continued failed leadership and performance, the federal judge issued an emergency Order, stating that the school system is a "massive failure" and that allowing the city schools to continue would be enabling management "to persist, for yet another year, in chaotic, unreliable, and wasteful 'remedial' exercises at the expense ... of the most at-risk children in the Baltimore City Public Schools."

O'Malley launched an attack against the judge, accusing him of inappropriate judicial activism and charged Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. with deliberately obstructing progress in Baltimore's education system (see ^*). Former Democratic state Senator Barbara A. Hoffman noted that the city schools had been given ample opportunities and questioned, "Why did the city not make a better attempt at this summer? . . . At some point you have to say, You guys can't do it. You can't do it, and you're not doing it."

Safety

In July 2005, the state Board of Education unanimously approved the designation of six Baltimore middle schools as "persistently dangerous" schools and put another nine city high schools and middle schools on probation (see ^*). More than 4,500 students attended these schools. This was the first time such a designation has been made in the state. No schools in the state's 23 other school systems are on either list. While agreeing on the assessment of the schools, however, the Board members were uncertain as to whether this was best method of improving them. But it was noted that the schools may have actually under reported the expulsions and long-term suspensions for offenses such as assault, arson or carrying drugs or weapons.

Reflecting on the enormity of the problem, board member Beverly A. Cooper stated, "This is bigger than the schools. This is the community, the whole city." Near the end of July, the state School Board requested that the Court permit direct oversight of the Baltimore school system, but something less than a direct takeover (see Stated Grasmick, "What we're saying is that there has to be some leadership. ... Hopefully, the people who are part of the permanent system could benefit from that leadership, and we could leave at some point with a functional system." In an August court filing, the state Board of Education said that at the end of July 2005 it sent administrators to monitor the services being provided to students at three schools. "In each school they found no students receiving services, principals and staff who did not even know that their school was a Summer Remedy site, and ... service providers left on their own to muddle through student files." An education program specialist in the state's special-education division, wrote about her experience at the three schools in a sworn affidavit, describing the fact that top Baltimore school administrators were entirely unaware of the educational services they were to provide and general chaos with organization and administration (see [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.special02aug02,1,1160325.story).

Three days after the U.S. District Court determined that the Baltimore School system had failed and singled out Baltimore schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland for criticism, saying he had "little confidence" in the school system's management practices, the Board renewed her contract, giving her a $40,000 raise. O'Malley voiced his approval of the School Board's actions. (see ^*,^*).

Criticism

The timing of these recent announcements has led to criticism from the O'Malley campaign that the State Superintendent, Nancy S. Grasmick, who has worked with the Governor on school issues, is timing the announcements for political reasons. Some have said they deliberately wait until good news is announced before releasing other information, perhaps to decrease O'Malley's standing among the Democratic electorate. Others note that this concerns a 21-year-old lawsuit waged by disabled students and their parents and that Grasmick and the school system have not set the schedule in U.S. District Court nor do they control the school board pronouncements.

Recently criticism has emerged of Mayor O'Malley behaving in an immature fashion (see Mayor O'Malley has also been criticized for questionable land deals where wealthy campaign contributors donated (see [http://www.mdpoliticsnow.com/?p=49).

Consolidation

From March 1, 2006 to March 4, 2006, Baltimore City high school students held a three day student strike to oppose an imminent plan to "consolidate" many area high schools into fewer buildings. The school system claims these buildings are underutilized, but the students and other advocates counter that the only reason there is extra space in these buildings is because class sizes often are about 40 students per class. O'Malley apparently gave an ear to the students' demands in this latest round of strike actions, fearing it could impact his status with the general public in a gubernatorial election year.

Convention center hotel

O'Malley sought to build a 100% public financed hotel on a site next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the Baltimore Convention Center. Under the Mayor's plan, the $305 million hotel would be built with revenue bonds and developed into a 752-room Hilton and owned by the City. The contract was awarded to billionaire Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television. The Mayor sought approval from City Council members who were repeatedly told by O'Malley that a hotel deal with private money is all but impossible. It was subsequently revealed that Johnson bid on a convention center in Washington, D.C. to build a $400 million using no public funds (seeO'Malley's plan is opposed by the Baltimore City branch of the NAACP, Baltimore's Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and BUILD, a faith-based nonprofit organization (seeWilliam Donald Schaefer who said, "They made a disaster of this whole thing. It's a bad deal. It should be financed privately" (see[http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.hotel16jul16,1,2105318.story?coll=bal-local-headlines" target="_blank" >^*) and many members of the City Council who stated about the deal, "It raised eyebrows and raised more questions." (See Baltimore Convention Center Hotel Project for more details regarding the convention center hotel.)

In July 2005, Duncan criticized O'Malley's hotel project, questioning the need for it and siding with the opposing faith-based organizations, even though Duncan successfully supported a similar hotel-based convention center at public expense.

In August 2005, on August 1st, the Baltimore City Council passed the hotel bills out of committee with a very close vote of 8-7 (see^*). On August 15, in a political victory for the mayor, the Council approved the vote by a 9-6 vote.

National Prominence

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” (see ^*). In August of 2005, Business Week Magazine Online named O'Malley as one of five "New Faces" in the Democratic Party. Business Week said 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" (see ^*).

Homeland Security

O'Malley is one of the George W. Bush Administration’s most vociferous critics when it comes to Homeland Security funding. In 2003, national Democratic leaders asked him to give the Democratic Response to the President’s weekly radio address (an honor normally reserved for members of the House, the Senate, and sitting Governors) 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” (see ^*). 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 May 2005, the Baltimore Sun headed an article, “Homeland funds used for apparel, bags.” It began, “The mayor who decries homeland security grants as “woefully under-funded” spent $23,572 in grant money on embroidered polo shirts, fleece pullovers, Nantucket caps and duffel bags.” O'Malley stated that had he reviewed the spending beforehand he would have vetoed the purchases.

In comparison, a May 29, 2005 Baltimore Sun article noted that the state spent $17,234 in homeland security funds to practice rescuing “a tame llama named Dexter and his sidekick, Karma, a Tennessee walking horse.” James Jay Carafano, a homeland security analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation which has traditionally supported Ehrlich, criticized this use of taxpayer dollars. “Does it pass the common sense test? Does it make the nation safer as a whole? I don't think so.” The article also found that, under the Ehrlich administration, Maryland has only spent one-third of its homeland security funds, while the rest of the money to which the state is entitled remains unspent.

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" (see ^*).

Family

O'Malley is married to Catherine Curran O'Malley (Katie). He first met her 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. In 1988, they began to date and he married her in 1990 while he was running his first (and unsuccessful) campaign for political office.

In 1991, they had their first child, Grace, while Katie was finishing her last semester of law school at the evening school of the University of Baltimore. They live in Northeast Baltimore City with their children, Grace (14), Tara (13), William (7), and Jack (2). They attend St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

O'Malley’s father in law J. Joseph Curran, Jr. is the longest serving attorney general in Maryland history, serving since 1987. He is also a former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and a state Senator.

In 2001, Katie, an attorney with an undergraduate degree from Towson State University and law degree from the University of Baltimore, was appointed by Democratic Governor Parris Glendening (D) as District Court Judge of Baltimore City.

O'Malley's father, Thomas M. O'Malley, was born in 1925 and admitted to the Maryland bar in 1952. He received his undergraduate and law degrees at Georgetown University. As a 20-year-old, Thomas served as a bombardier in World War II and flew missions over Japan. In a news article in August 2005, he called the U.S. action a "war crime since civilians were targeted." A poet, Thomas wrote, "Forgive them (the U.S.), O Lord; For the damage they've done; To these innocent victims (the Japanese); In your August sun." Thomas O'Malley published a book, "Deep Throat: the Watergate Informant." Thomas was an attorney in Rockville, Maryland prior to his death in 2005 at the age of 80.

One of O'Malley's brothers, Peter C. O'Malley, was born in 1970 and admitted to the Maryland bar in 2000. He received his undergraduate degree from Catholic University and law degree from the University of Baltimore. He is General Counsel of GovStat, LLC. He is also considered one of the Mayor's top political advisors.

Peter married his wife, Melinda, in 2003. She was hired in November 2002 by J. Joseph Curran, Jr. in the office of the Maryland Attorney General. She was assigned to work in the office of the Maryland Insurance Administration under former Commissioner Steven B. Larsen and Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich.

O'Malley's brother Patrick O'Malley ran for New York City council from Western Queens, District 26 in the 2001 local elections. He lost the Democratic Primary, coming in forth out five candidates (see^*).

Relations

Due to a possible inherent conflict of interest in potentially having two close family members at the position of Governor and Attorney General, some have 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. One prominent commentator compared the circumstances to the Kennedy brothers and their positions as President and U.S. Attorney General and noted that Congress succeeded in banning such perceived nepotism thereafter. Currently, Maryland lacks a similar statute, though the Attorney General and Governor are separately elected offices, unlike in the Federal government (see^*).

The potential conflict of interest was recently cited when environmentalist groups initiated a class action lawsuit against the George W. Bush administration concerning mercury pollution rules. Republican Ehrlich blocked Curran from joining the suit, stating that better and faster results would be achieved by utilizing the rule-making process rather than lawsuits. Curran’s son-in-law O’Malley then joined the suit to great fanfare in the press, and with criticism from Republicans for not focusing on Baltimore’s needs (see ^*).

2006 Gubernatorial Elections

For more information, see Maryland gubernatorial election, 2006.

O'Malley is a likely candidate to seek the Democratic Party's nomination to challenge Governor Robert Ehrlich in 2006. O'Malley featured the news article “Running early, running hard" (see^*) 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 named Jonathan Epstein as his campaign manager, but then fired Epstein in May 2006.

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 health reasons, making it almost certain that O'Malley will be the Democratic candidate opposing Ehrlich in the general election.

Friends of O'Malley also have speculated that he could be a presidential candidate in 2012 if he becomes governor (see ^*).

Sources

External links

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