O’Malley considers run at White House
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is not saying he’s definitely running for the White House, only that he’s “seriously considering” a bid, but when I interviewed him he sounded very much like a man who is closing in on a decision to throw his hat in the ring and does not seem deterred by the Clinton juggernaut.
“It’s something that I’m seriously considering. Meantime, I’m focusing my energies on governing my own state and helping like-minded people get elected [in November’s midterm polls].”
For Hillary Clinton, however, it’s the stuff of nightmares: another Democrat waiting in the wings to upset her bid for the White House as Barack Obama once did. This time round any slip up if she runs in 2016 could catapult the ambitious young Irish-American governor into the race to try to seize the prize.
And, by all accounts, Mrs Clinton is close to decision time on her presidential ambitions. As campaigning for Democrats in the midterm elections moves into its final stages, she is getting ready to show her hand, most likely early in the New Year. She said as much at an event in New Mexico recently, indication that a decision was probable “after the first of the year”.
When I pressed O’Malley on whether he would go ahead even if Clinton were in the race he avoided naming her directly in his response, replying this way: “I don’t really focus on what other people might or might not be doing. I don’t have the time for that: I’m busy helping other Democrats in the midterms and doing the sort of thought-work that is required in order to offer a candidacy if that’s what we decided to do down the road, by we I mean my wife and I.
“I think the most important thing for anyone that would make an offering as weighty as a candidacy for the presidency of the United States is to make sure that you are offering a clear and better path forward. And I would hope that if others are considering making an offering that would be their top consideration as well.”
One of those “others” of course is Clinton and the conventional wisdom was that if she ran then O’Malley would not-after all he is a strong supporter of hers and was chair of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Maryland Presidential Campaign in 2008. “He would burn too many bridges in the Democratic party if he went against her,” one party activist told me.
So could it become a tussle of ambition over loyalty? If it does, some say ambition could win out. Others are not so sure.
Stella O’Leary, president of the Irish-American Democrats lobby group, is close to both Democrats and knows them for a long number of years. In O’Malley case she’s known him for over 30 years and doesn’t believe he will run if Clinton does.
“Both Martin and Hillary are running indirect campaigns for the presidency. He is putting together a campaign in the event that Hillary doesn’t run. I believe he won’t enter if she does because he’s a very dedicated supporter of Hillary.”
But for a man not that well known outside the east coast, a bid in 2016 could boost both his profile and his coffers. A strong performance might even position him as a possible vice-presidential pick by Hillary. “The drawback he would have is that she would win Maryland in any circumstance so he wouldn’t bring a lot of new voters with him,” according to O’Leary.
“But the broader advantage would be his appeal to white male voters. He’s a 51-year-old successful white male politician, a constituency that Democrats have a problem with. He’s a charming white Irishman, which is a very popular image in the white male community, and he’s considered middle of the road.”
Indeed, American politicians don’t come much more Irish than Governor O’Malley. He named one of his four children Grace after the ‘pirate queen’, from whom he says the family is descended, and he pointed out when we spoke that his great grandfather was of Galway stock, emigrating to America in the 1880s from Kilmilkin in the heart of Connemara.
He is also well keyed in to Irish history, culture and music. The first time I met O’Malley about two decades ago he was a political novice singing in a Washington pub with his Irish rock band “O’Malley’s March”. In the years since then he’s twice marched into the mayoralty of Baltimore and the governship of Maryland-and he still manages to play with the band “about every other month”
He became mayor of Baltimore in 1999, inheriting a city riven by crime, failing schools, poor housing and bleak economic prospects. But he turned things round and was re-elected in 2003. In 2005 TIME magazine named him one of America’s “Top 5 Big City Mayors”.
He went on to become governor of the state in 2007 and was re-elected in 2010. As governor he has backed higher taxes and spending on education. But despite his strong management record he may appear too liberal for many American voters - he has backed same-sex marriage, tougher gun-control laws and has repealed the death penalty.
But he rejects the suggested liberal tag. Indeed, his words have the ring about them of a man practising a presidential campaign speech. “The issue facing us right now as a country is how we can create jobs and expand economic opportunity. On that score Maryland had a better rate of job creation than our neighbours through the last seven years. We’ve made our schools the best public schools for five years in a row. I don’t look at issues as to whether they’re left or whether they are right; I look at them in terms of whether or not they can move us forward, and I think that is increasingly how most of the American people are looking at issues.”
But running for high office in the US is often as much about big bucks as big issues. The Clinton machine is formidable, yet O’Malley has also shown he can bring in the cash.
As a former head of the Democratic Governors Association, O’Malley is one of the party’s top fundraisers and managed to raise more than $1m for Obama’s re-election campaign, an amount said to be the most raised by any sitting Democratic office-holder.
“I have always kept it on my desk whether in serving as a city councilman in Baltimore, mayor of Baltimore or now governor of Maryland. It says ‘Help Wanted. No Irish need Apply’ and that sign is a reminder that in every generation America has been made stronger by the arrival of immigrants.”
This time, however, Hillary may be hoping that this particular Irish- American is not getting ready to apply.
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