Governor

FROSTBURG - Cheryl Haberkam became despondent after losing her job as a dispatcher for a moving company late last year. The Baltimore resident had no income and no savings, and unemployment benefits had not kicked in. She didn't know where to turn. So she e-mailed Gov. Martin O'Malley. "I know you probably can't help me," she wrote, "but I think just saying this might help. Thank you for your time." As the economy slid into recession, an increasing number of residents have apparently wanted to share their troubles - and their grievances - with the governor.

Mayor Sheila Dixon has retained most of Gov. Martin O'Malley's top city staff. She has vowed to continue most of his policies. Yet Baltimore voters believe she is charting a new course for the city -- one they generally approve of -- according to a new poll conducted for The Sun. Nearly 60 percent of likely Baltimore Democratic primary voters say they believe Dixon has differentiated herself from the policies of O'Malley, according to the poll by...

Gov. Martin O'Malley revived an issue dear to labor leaders and liberal groups in his State of the State speech this week when he deviated from his text and promised to back "living wage" legislation, a proposal that would force companies doing business with the state to pay workers upward of $11 an hour. Unions poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into O'Malley's campaign, and they contributed volunteers who worked to get voters to the polls for the Baltimore Democrat. In the first days of his term, the governor - who made a symbolic statement by inviting AFL-CIO President John Sweeney onto the State House steps with him for his inauguration - is demonstrating why he won labor's support.

Last week's debate over an Eastern Shore land deal brought to the surface tensions that have been brewing between Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot for months over how Maryland's chief tax collector plans to change the structure and scope of his office, a problem some political observers believe became inevitable when voters elected the two highly ambitious Democrats last fall. A day after Franchot demanded a halt to an open-space purchase in Queen Anne's County until the administration answered his 11-point query about the deal, the governor directed some unusually pointed public barbs at Franchot, who represented Montgomery County in the House of Delegates for two decades.

Washington -- Mike Huckabee, a former conservative governor from the largely Democratic state of Arkansas, will launch his bid today for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, opening an exploratory committee to raise money. Acknowledging that he will be a tough sell against better-known conservative candidates for the White House, Huckabee said yesterday that "America loves an underdog." He also pointed to his ability as a two-term governor to please liberals, noting that he raised taxes for education and poverty programs.

Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley has the look of a man determined to hit the ground walking. In the weeks since he was elected, the Democrat has avoided specifics about his first-year legislative agenda. He has pushed off talk of tax increases until at least next year. He has named heads of a few departments but held off on the rest. When he met with legislative leaders, he did a lot of listening and not much talking. Seven years ago, O'Malley was a brash and energetic young Baltimore mayor who followed the mellow Kurt L. Schmoke administration with a major City Hall shake-up, closing firehouses, implementing new police strategies, laying off city employees and privatizing services in his first months on the job. Next week, he will take over a State House roiled by conflict after four years under Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., but this time he is intent on calming things down.

With that wacky Charm City Cakes guy on The Food Network all the time, people across the country might have gotten the impression that Baltimore is a little odd. Thank goodness American foodies were set straight the other night, when they saw Attman's Deli serving up a good, old-fashioned hot dog with, well, bologna. Beef, it's what's for dinner. And at Baltimore's landmark Jewish deli, it's also what's on your dinner. The circular lunchmeat is, Marc Attman tells me, a perfectly normal, if somewhat redundant, condiment for the tubular dog. "The bologna is really the same meat that's inside [the frankfurter]

Tomorrow, as state lawmakers convene for a special session to address Maryland's fiscal woes, they will face the complex and controversial multibillion-dollar plan proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley. In the days that follow, Mr. O'Malley's $2 billion budget-balancing blueprint - as well as a handful of related bills likely to be offered by legislators - will be scrutinized, debated and voted upon. In the end, their success can be measured by only one result: the adoption of a real and long-term solution to the state's growing structural deficit.

FEW people are as important to Martin O'Malley as the "man who wasn't there" when the mayor-elect gave his victory speech Tuesday night.By the time Mr. O'Malley delivered his thank-you remarks, Gov. Parris Glendening had disappeared. A few hours earlier, though, over bottles of Irish beer, the governor had delivered the message Mr. O'Malley wanted to hear: There's going to be "a new relationship" between Mr. Glendening and Baltimore. That would mark a radical departure from the frosty relations between Mr. Glendening and outgoing Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in recent years.

NO ACTION in Parris N. Glendening's five years as governor has been so controversial -- and so harmful to Maryland's future -- as his decision to cancel the Intercounty Connector roadway in suburban Washington. It was a giant step backward in efforts to create a unified, thriving state.It boiled down to politics. Mr. Glendening is positioning himself as a candidate for a Cabinet-level job in a possible Gore presidency. Axing the ICC won him brownie points with the environmental community, a core constituency of Vice President Al Gore.

Del. Jon S. Cardin not only planned an August night to remember for his girlfriend that featured a mock police raid and marriage proposal. He also invited Gov. Martin O'Malley to make a surprise appearance afterward to congratulate the couple. As it turned out, O'Malley had a prior engagement and wasn't able to meet the couple that fateful night. That saved the governor from becoming embroiled in a scandal stemming from Cardin's enlistment of Baltimore police resources and on-duty officers to stage his proposal on a boat in the Inner Harbor.

About 70,000 state employees would see their salaries reduced under a furlough proposal from Gov. Martin O'Malley to save $75 million in the middle of the latest budget crisis. The plan includes a shutdown of routine state government operations for five days around holidays, including the Friday before the coming Labor Day weekend. The highest paid employees - those earning more than $100,000 a year - would lose two weeks' pay. Lowest-paid workers would be docked for three days. Salaries would return to current levels next year.

This week marks 35 years since the death of Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, twice mayor of Baltimore and two-term governor of Maryland. The passage of three-and-a-half decades - and more than 40 years since he last held elective office - have, unfortunately, obscured his considerable achievements. McKeldin, who served as mayor from 1943 to 1947, governor from 1951 to 1959, then again as mayor from 1963 to 1967, was a Republican in a state which then - as now - elected few from the GOP to statewide office.

I drove three hours to Crisfield on Wednesday and three hours back, and for a few hours in between talked to a bunch of politicians out on a hot parking lot. It was so worth it, if only to (almost) see Martin O'Malley and Doug Duncan cross paths. The Democratic governor and the Democrat who might challenge him in next year's primary came face to face at the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake. Duncan, the former Montgomery County executive, has hinted that he might run, either for governor or for lieutenant governor with former Prince George's exec Wayne Curry at the top of the ticket.

Gov. Martin O'Malley laid out a vision for the state last week when addressing hundreds of local officials at a convention. Even though his term ends next year, his plan extends for five years. The governor's rhetoric could be taken as a subliminal campaign message, conveying to voters that he intends to seek re-election and be around for a second term. While O'Malley hasn't officially announced his candidacy, and several potential challengers have yet to make their plans known, the 2010 race has begun in subtle ways like this.

I think Rick Abbruzzese, spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley, was kidding when he suggested I apply for the job of Maryland secretary of transportation. After all, the job calls for a master's degree and experience in public administration, things I don't have. But, hey, the governor can make an exception and when the pay range is $124,175 to $166,082 a year, it's worth a shot. After all, I figure I know a little about the job. Since taking over the transportation beat five years ago - and during a previous stint in the State House - I've covered two very different occupants of that office.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an executive order Thursday that will impose a ban on the use of hand-held cell phones by Maryland executive branch employees while driving state-owned vehicles. O'Malley said he was taking the action as part of a new driver safety program. Cell phone use has been identified in numerous studies as one of the leading distractions drivers face on the roads. The governor's action follows another legislative session in which the General Assembly rejected curbing cell phone use while driving.

George W. Owings III, a former Democratic delegate and party leader from Calvert County, is "actively considering a challenge" to Gov. Martin O'Malley in next year's election, the former majority whip told The Baltimore Sun. The 64-year-old Vietnam war hero from Dunkirk, who served in Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s Cabinet, said he was "45 to 60 days" away from deciding on whether to enter the 2010 Democratic primary. He acknowledged the "very long" odds of anyone unseating the governor.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has one more day to wrangle legislative victories from a General Assembly session during which he fell short in his campaign to end state executions, struggled to acquire more control over electric utilities and relied on a federal government bailout to protect education and social services programs. Late Saturday, a House of Delegates committee rejected O'Malley's proposal to re-regulate the electricity market. And in a year when the governor needed to find money wherever he could, he has been rebuffed in efforts to crack down on Medicaid fraud, which could yield millions of dollars for the state's coffers and a major policy victory.

If Danny Boy were on death row, he'd understand. Yesterday was a great day for the Irish, except perhaps for Maryland's most prominent Irishman, who needed to be in two places at once. In Annapolis, Gov. Martin O'Malley was due at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a death penalty bill, one of the governor's top priorities. And in Washington, he was supposed to sing the Irish National Anthem at a lunch with President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.