PLS REVIEW: O'Malley Hits
Friends,
Similar to the summary of Sanders hits, I wanted to have everyone on one thread to share some O’Malley hits. Unlike the Sanders hits, I suspect most of these will be primarily for the debate. Just to flag some of these hits have not been written, so we would need to decide if/when we want to deploy.
Please let us know if you need anything else.
Tony
Ties to Wall Street - Gov. O’Malley tries to portray Hillary Clinton as a tool of Wall Street but has his own ties to the industry. In 2010, O’Malley appointed a former Deutsche Bank investment banker to head the Commission for Financial Regulation. He supported and defended the bailout of Wall Street. When O’Malley was finance chair of the DGA, the association received a $100,000 contribution from Goldman Sachs, and participated in a Goldman Sachs forum in 2005. He created a 501c4 organization, NewDEAL, that was financed in part with contributions from the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. Moreover, news reports said that O’Malley earlier this year was soliciting funds from the financial industry for his presidential race.
Trade - Gov. O’Malley’s current anti-trade rhetoric doesn’t match his record. In 2000, he signed the “Hyde Park Declaration” that included a commitment to “open trade.” In 2011, he told the Export-Import Global Access Forum that the only way we will succeed is “is if we pick ourselves up off the mat, end the pity party, and become engaged in the big, big markets and opportunities that are out there in the world.” In 2012, he praised President Obama’s trade policies: “We see trade increasing out of the port of Baltimore which is creating jobs as we sell more and more American products abroad, and our schools, thanks in part to the president's help are actually raising standards.” And in 2013, he signed a letter on TPP laying out priorities for negotiations. It stated, in part, “we ask that you include very strong intellectual property rights provisions, consistent with U.S. law, for protecting the investments of our innovative, intellectual property-intensive sectors, such as biopharmaceuticals.” As governor, he went on numerous trade missions, including to China and India.
Pension/Retirment - Facing a budget and pension shortfall, O’Malley proposed changes to the state pension system said workers could increase their contributions or take a benefit cut in retirement. It also raised the early retirement age for state workers.
Minimum Wage - Gov. O’Malley is a strong proponent of a $15 minimum wage. However, as governor, it did not seem that raising the minimum wage was a priority until his last year. In 2012, the Baltimore Sun editorialized that Maryland was “missing in action” on raising the minimum wage. “But since Mr. O'Malley was elected governor, efforts to boost the Maryland minimum wage have languished. Last year, a bill to raise it to $9.75 over three years couldn't even get an up-or-down vote in a House or Senate committee. Apparently, raising the minimum wage is all the rage among Maryland Democrats when it can be used to bash the first Republican governor in a generation -- but not so much at other times,” it stated. In 2013, all the Democratic candidates to replace O’Malley supported raising the minimum wage. It wasn’t until 2014 that O’Malley was able to sign a $10.10 minimum wage.
Pay to Play – While on the Democratic Governors Association executive board, Martin O’Malley rewarded major DGA donors with taxpayer-funded Maryland contracts. Local press documented the unseemly pattern, and further investigation shows a clear and troubling correlation between the interests of major DGA donors and O’Malley’s behavior in Maryland. Political analysts once said O’Malley’s DGA fundraising “cement[ed] his credentials” as a viable candidate for public office. In 2011, the Baltimore Sun reported that more than a dozen companies with business interests in Maryland donated to the DGA during the first 6 months of his tenure. In 2011, O’Malley signed into law a waste to energy bill that benefited Energy Answers, which donated $100,000 to the DGA on the same day. Environmentalists opposed the bill. CSX Corporation increased donations to the DGA as Maryland fought for federal funding for its Gateway Project. After leaving the governor’s office, O’Malley took a lucrative job at a firm for which he helped secure a no-bid contract.
Drivers Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants - Gov. O’Malley has taken several positions on allowing undocumented immigrants to have drivers licenses. Before he became governor, Maryland’s policy was allowed driving privileges for undocumented immigrants. In 2008, he effectively ended that program by opposing a plan to issue separate drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, citing the need to comply with federal regulations. Immigration advocates widely criticized his administration for this, one saying he was “prioritizing political pandering over good policymaking.” O’Malley blamed the Bush administration and defended his move, saying, “We'd become an attraction to people who feel they can easily obtain a license through fraudulent means because they have one less thing to prove.” In 2009, he supported a measure that would require proof of legal status to obtain a drivers license. In 2013, the legislature passed and O’Malley signed into law a measure to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses.
Deportations – Martin O’Malley led from behind on the controversial immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities. After scores of non-criminal immigrants were deported, counties and elected officials took action to curb effects of deportations. O’Malley waited four years to act, resulting in the deportation of almost 1,000 immigrants with no criminal history. In fact, over a third of all immigrants deported under this program had no criminal record. Under O’Malley’s watch as Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland, tens of thousands of immigrants faced deportation. Despite these facts, O’Malley touts his work in advancing Baltimore’s status as a “sanctuary city.”
Energy/Fracking - In 2014, Gov. O’Malley supported fracking in Western Maryland, a departure from his 2011 executive order that placed a moratorium on hydraulic fracking in the state.
Mandatory Minimums - O’Malley’s main attack on Hillary Clinton is he has been consistent on progressive issues. On criminal justice reform, that is not the case. In 2007, O’Malley vetoed legislation that allowed for the possibility of parole during a 10-year mandatory sentence for some second-time non-violent drug offenders. The legislation was a top priority of the Legislative Black Caucus. O’Malley said, “I'm not sure that I can sign a bill that would do away with the penalties we have in Maryland -- or lessen the penalties -- for second-time drug dealers…I think drug dealing is a violent crime.”
Criminal Justice
· Conducting mass arrests for low-level offenses. At the height of this practice, in 2005, Baltimore logged more than 108,400 arrests — equivalent to a sixth of the city’s population. The following year, the ACLU and the NAACP sued the city, alleging a pattern of illegal arrests. In a 2010 settlement, the city paid out $870,000, agreed to retrain officers, and publicly rejected zero-tolerance policing. O’Malley scoffed at critics of mass arrests as “ideologues of the left” and linked an increase in shootings in Baltimore to a decline in arrests.
· Denying elderly prisoners parole. O’Malley also instituted a de facto policy of denying parole for anyone serving a life sentence. Maryland is one of only three states that allows the governor to reject recommendations from parole commissions. O’Malley was reluctant to use his clemency power, even as many Democratic and Republican gubernatorial counterparts were more lenient in granting these acts of mercy. O’Malley rejected nearly 1,300 cases, and granted a total of 146 pardons over eight years – and only three to prisoners serving life sentences.
· Building juvenile prisons. While continuing to trumpet the falling crime rates, O’Malley advocated for new juvenile justice facilities, including a new facility in Baltimore that was projected to cost $100 million. After years of protests from community activists and leaders, O’Malley’s administration finally scrapped the plan in 2013.
Marijuana - Gov. O’Malley opposed decriminalizing marijuana until the day he signed it into law. The Frederick News-Post called him an “11th hour convert.”
Marriage Equality - As mayor, O’Malley supported civil marriages, but when he ran for governor, he said marriage was between a man and a woman and instead support civil unions for gay couples. In 2012, O’Malley noted the flip flop and said he sacrificed his beliefs for political purposes. He only supported civil unions because at the time most Marylanders did not support marriage for gay couples. He told Gavin Newsom his advisers told him, “There’s no way you can be for this without it becoming a huge distraction in the governor’s race and you can’t say civil marriage. There’s gay marriage and there’s civil unions.”
Patriot Act - In 2001, O’Malley testified before Congress in support of the Patriot Act.
Centrist - Despite running as a strong progressive in 2016, O’Malley previously associated with the Democratic Leadership Council and ran as a “centrist.” In 2007, he wrote an op-ed with Harold Ford Jr. urging Democrats to recapture the center, saying, “some liberals are so confident about Democratic prospects that they contend the centrism that vaulted Democrats to victory in the 1990s no longer matters.” O’Malley’s more aggressive progressive posture in 2015 led one Baltimore Sun columnist to write, “But, as always, O'Malley's passion sounded contrived, overwrought. His problem remains that authenticity thing.”