After his police commissioner abruptly quit a week and a half ago, Mayor Martin O'Malley's supporters found the usually brash, confident mayor uncharacteristically somber.
His ordinarily festive City Hall office seemed more like a funeral parlor. "He was visibly shaken," said West Baltimore Councilwoman Catherine E. Pugh.
But by last Monday, O'Malley had begun doing what helped him beat 27 other mayoral candidates last summer: campaigning. A whirlwind of private and public meetings with supporters and critics -- wrapped around the potentially divisive appointment of Edward T. Norris as the new commissioner -- helped O'Malley navigate the first crisis of his new administration last week.
That's not to say that O'Malley was not deeply stung -- and possibly politically scarred -- by Ronald L. Daniel's departure. Daniel was O'Malley's first Cabinet pick and one that the mayor last December called the "biggest decision" of his life.
And O'Malley's success lasts only until the next crisis, particularly if it involves a police shooting of an unarmed suspect, as has happened three times over the last 13 months in New York City, where Norris worked until earlier this year as a deputy police commissioner. That tenuousness is a clear signal that the damage done by Daniel's resignation officially ended the mayor's honeymoon period.
"The first time a police shooting happens, especially if the victim is African-American and it's conducted by a white police officer, that's when there could be trouble," said Matthew Crenson, a Johns Hopkins University political science professor.
For now, observers say, the mayor appears to be succeeding -- not only by talking, but listening.
"Any change is going to cause a ripple," said city Republican Party President Victor Clark, a member of the city Community Relations Commission. But "a good level of activity has made people feel comfortable that he is at least doing something."
O'Malley moved quickly to shore up his support among City Council members. At a two-hour luncheon Tuesday, the mayor allowed his former colleagues to vent over the tough political position Daniel's departure left them in. The resignation put pressure on council members from predominantly African-American districts where residents are wary of the "zero tolerance" crime-fighting approach O'Malley plans to employ.
