During a boisterous rally at a steelworkers union hall last week, Mayor Martin O'Malley rolled up his sleeves and railed against the direction that the city's political leaders took the city in the 1990s, when federal officials began to identify Baltimore as the most drug-addicted city in America. O'Malley then raised the hand of City Council President Sheila Dixon, who was standing on stage next to him, and shouted that working people should vote for Dixon to be the city's No. 2 leader. That would make her his replacement if he runs for governor and wins in 2006.
As the steelworkers, plumbers and pipefitters roared their approval, what was not discussed was the irony of O'Malley's anointing of Dixon as the city's future boss. After all, Dixon is held accountable by some as one of the local political leaders responsible for the city's downward direction in the 1990s. She was former Mayor Kurt Schmoke's strongest ally on the council, while O'Malley was one of his most ferocious critics.
O'Malley and Dixon air-brush their differences today -- campaigning together and calling themselves "team Baltimore" -- but they remain diametrically opposed on the central change brought about by the O'Malley administration: drug enforcement.
Dixon keeps relatively quiet about the issue because she doesn't have the power to implement her vision of policing. But if she were mayor someday, she might return to a Schmoke-like philosophy of enforcement that favors "medicalization" -- meaning more medical treatment, but fewer arrests, of dealers and addicts. Ordering the arrests of small-time crack peddlers and junkies on street corners was O'Malley's first major action when he took office four years ago, and he went on to boost the number of drug arrests in the city by 66 percent, from 17,815 in 1999 to 29,653 in 2001.
The big picture here is that O'Malley is endorsing as his replacement someone who might reverse the policy for which he was selected by voters four years ago. And drug enforcement isn't the only area where he and Dixon differ. While O'Malley boasts about the success of his computerized 311 system for delivering city services, Dixon calls the 311 phone system a "total joke" and suggests that she might pull the plug. O'Malley says he's proud of his housing department and his Project 5000 initiative to take possession of 5,000 abandoned homes, but Dixon questions the success of the program and discusses overhauling the housing agency. On another level, O'Malley is a showman who enjoys media attention and favors open government. Dixon is an awkward public speaker who is suspicious of the press and who has been criticized for holding closed meetings.
