Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley said he grew up in a home "where politics was considered a noble and good thing to do," where pictures of presidents John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt decorated the walls. He was inspired by the Peace Corps, by sacrifices for the country.
O'Malley Rallies Democrats in Charles
Baltimore Mayor Criticizes U.S., Md. GOP Leadership
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 6, 2004; Page SM03
Martin O'Malley, the mayor of Baltimore and a potential Democratic challenger to Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., came to Waldorf on Friday night to say a few words.
The stage was the Charles County Democratic Central Committee's annual Truman-Kennedy Dinner, a gathering of more than 350 of the party faithful at the Waldorf Jaycees Community Center. O'Malley's words came fast and slow, rising to shouts then falling into whispers. The remarks, shooting for inspiration and motivation, moved from O'Malley's childhood to his work in Baltimore and criticism of the Bush administration.
O'Malley said he grew up in a home "where politics was considered a noble and good thing to do," where pictures of presidents John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt decorated the walls. He was inspired by the Peace Corps, by sacrifices for the country.
"I firmly believe that when our party is at our best, we are the party of security, we're the party of responsibility, and we're the party of opportunity," he said.
He described the country under President Bush as being in a time of "crisis."
"In our White House we have a president that has run up a bigger budget deficit than any president in history. We have a president that tells us that our own government is the beast and has to be limited and reduced," he said. "It's not the America I was brought up to believe in, folks."
In one of the few allusions to his potential Republican adversary in the 2006 governor's race, O'Malley said, "That same type of cynical greed-is-good leadership is trying to put its stranglehold on the state of Maryland."
He moved on to Baltimore, where he was elected mayor in 1999, and discussed the city he inherited.
"By the 1990s, we had become a city that was being killed by a lot of bad administration and a city that was wallowing in a sea of excuses," he said.
From 1994 to 1999, Baltimore was the most addicted city in America and by the end of that time, the most violent city in America, he said, adding that he has worked to reduce crime and drug addiction and improve schools.
"My job, conceptually, is pretty simple, and the job of every mayor is pretty simple," he said. "You've got to make your city a safer place, a cleaner place, a better place for kids to grow up, and when you do that the investment comes back."
He recalled a town meeting at which a 12-year-old girl named Amber approached a microphone and asked him whether he was aware her neighborhood was referred to in newspapers as zombie-land, and whether he was going to do anything about it.
"If nothing else, as your head hits the pillow tonight be assured that you and your taxes, and the progressive leadership that you have sent to our state and to our country in years past, [are] doing something about it," O'Malley said. "We are doing something about justice and injustice in this country and in this state."
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