If you’ve watched past Democratic debates, you may recall a tan, lanky man standing beside Bernie and Hillary, both of whom are household names. Yet no one seems to actually know very much about Martin O’Malley, the only other candidate who was running for the Democratic nomination before the Iowa caucuses. Even some of my most politically aware friends had no idea who he was before he dropped out, and even if they did, his policies were nothing important to them. After all, O’Malley seems to be the definition of innocuous: fairly harmless and inoffensive. However, I think that he should be taken more seriously, even though he’s dropped out of the presidential race, and that people should know about him.
To get background on O’Malley’s history, you’d have to go back to where he launched his political career. He has served practically his whole life in Maryland, acting on the Baltimore City Council from 1991–1999, serving as Baltimore’s mayor from 1999–2007, and holding the position of governor until 2015, when he announced his campaign for the presidency in May. He has received various criticisms for the main theme of his mayoral campaign: a “zero tolerance” policy on crime and drug abuse that resulted in conducting mass arrests for low-level charges, like loitering, among other problems that culminated in the city of Baltimore’s having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in a settlement for wrongful detention. This issue has dogged O’Malley’s presidential campaign, especially in the face of the #BlackLivesMatter movement—the movement insisted that O’Malley’s strict law enforcement record has only furthered the racial tension in Baltimore, where protests erupted after the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015. O’Malley has defended himself against this harsh position by claiming that he saved “about 1,000 lives, probably.”
It wouldn’t be reasonable, however, to simply portray O’Malley as a repressive and power-hungry politician. Among his policies regarding criminal justice are the legalization of the possession of small amounts of marijuana as well as repealing the death penalty. He also supports transparency on the use of force, advocating for body cameras on all officers. And barring some of the problems caused by his “zero tolerance” policy, many of its results were beneficial: Baltimore recovered from open-air drug markets, prison incarceration was reduced, and steps were made towards reducing prison guard corruption.
One issue which O’Malley made central to his campaign is college reform. Among the 15 goals listed on his website are to “ensure that all higher education students have the option to graduate debt-free in five years” and to “improve college and career readiness.” He planned to reduce tuition rates and implement income-based repayment plans, similar to how homeowners or businesses can refinance their loans, to keep young Americans from drowning in debt from college. And, as O’Malley pointed out in one of the Democratic debates, he has a successful track record with keeping college more affordable. Maryland, according to the U.S. Department of Education, experienced the slowest tuition rate growth of any state in the 2012-2013 school year.
Another place where Martin O’Malley shines is gun control. Like most Democrats, he has advocated for background checks and comprehensive gun control legislation, praising Obama for his recent executive policy on gun control that seek to limit the loopholes in buying and selling firearms. O’Malley has notably called for a ban on assault weapons, something that many conservatives consider to be an infringement of the Second Amendment. At a debate, he said that “when ISIL does training videos that say the easiest way to get a combat assault weapon in the United States of America is at a gun show, then we should all be waking up.” Policies like this are seen as an affront to the National Rifle Association (NRA), but O’Malley is not one to back down from a challenge: “I proudly hold an F rating from the NRA, and when I worked to pass gun control in Maryland, the NRA threatened me with legal action, but I never backed down.”
Martin O’Malley failed miserably in the Iowa caucuses, not even receiving 1 percent of the support from caucus-goers. However, he could still have a profound impact on the course of the presidential race. Recently, he slammed the Democratic National Convention—and the Democratic Party as a whole—in a scathing oration that attacked the policy of limiting the number of debates to four as “undemocratic.” Perhaps more pertinent is the possibility of his becoming a member of the presidential cabinet, assuming a Democrat wins office. He could even be Bernie’s or Hillary’s running mate. Though he currently lacks the relevance to pack a punch, he certainly earned a lot of respect during the process for his experience and professionalism. He could certainly be a major voice in the Democratic Party in the future, and who knows; he might be on the ballot again in another four years.
“Presidential Candidates” is a recurring column that anyone can write. Please contact Liz Rosen at opinion@ihstattler.com for more information.