O'Malley begins his run in Bethesda

[Zuni]

O'Malley makes first public campaign stop in rival's back yard

It's 19 months before the Democratic primary, but a crowd of 205 packed the Leland Community Center in Chevy Chase to hear Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's thoughts on running for governor on a snowy Sunday.

Although O'Malley has made a series of visits to the home of his likely rival, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, to lay the groundwork for a run, this was his first campaign event here for the general public.

"I grew up in a small log cabin right over there on Sleaford Road," O'Malley joked, talking of growing up in Bethesda and later Rockville, where his parents still live.

With snow and sleet falling until midday, it was unclear how many people would show up at the 4 p.m. event; organizers considered canceling or holding it in someone's house. But a fire-code capacity crowd showed up, with 30 people forced to listen from an adjoining room.

O'Malley had the microphone in his hand for more than an hour, riffing on some of his trademark stories about reducing Baltimore's crime rate, raising property values and stemming what had been a massive exodus before he took office five years ago.

He took aim at Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s "no government, weak America" Republican ideals, blasting the governor's back-door budget cuts to children while Ehrlich proclaims the "Year of the Child."

O'Malley spoke of rejecting Republican talk "that greed is the new value."

"I think we're all in this together," he said, taking Ehrlich to task for soaring tuition, selling off public land, raiding transportation funds, and playing "cynical shell games" with the budget.

He also accused Ehrlich of a lack of honesty and of bringing "Newt Gingrich-style" politics from Capitol Hill to the State House.

He also mocked Ehrlich's "Five Pillars," a list of priorities including education and fiscal responsibility that the governor repeats at nearly every event. O'Malley said the pillars are not the problem, it's the follow-through.

"His pillars are the Styrofoam type you would get from a caterer," he said.

The crowd cheered heartily for about 30 seconds after O'Malley spoke, then lingered for about 45 minutes hoping to shake his hand, chat or take a picture or two.

The wow factor came despite O'Malley's self-described "muddled" position on legalizing slot machines. Asked about the volatile issue noted for dividing Democrats, he opened to vociferous cheers by saying that he does not think it is a good way to pay for important programs such as education; then he had the audience go limp when he said he is open to a reasonable compromise that saves racing and has the extra money go to capital projects such as school construction.

"I don't want to lose racing," O'Malley said. "I don't want to lose the Preakness. ... That's my muddled position on slots."

Duncan has helped lead the opposition to slots.

O'Malley also muddled through his position on the Intercounty Connector. He supports the Gaithersburg-to-Laurel highway but criticized the Ehrlich administration's plan to mortgage the state's transportation budget to pay for it.

Former Montgomery County Council president Isiah Leggett, who announced last week that he is running for county executive in 2006, showed up Sunday. Leggett, until recently the chairman of the state Democratic Party, has often been a Duncan ally.

Also included in the crowd were a number of Democrats estranged from Duncan. Former County Council president Blair G. Ewing, narrowly ousted in 2002 by a Duncan-sponsored slate, said that he has been supporting O'Malley since last summer and that he has not been so excited about a candidate since Adlai Stevenson, back in the 1950s.

"I thought Martin was magnificent today," said Ewing. "That kind of eloquence you don't see at the state or national level."

Other notables included Bobbie Walton, chief aide to County Councilman Philip M. Andrews of Gaithersburg, another Democrat not close to Duncan; Neal Fitzpatrick, head of the Audubon Naturalist Society; Takoma Park Councilman Marc Elrich, who ran unsuccessfully for the County Council on Ewing's 2002 slate; Ben Ross, a supporter of the inner Purple Line light rail, which Duncan has opposed; and Wayne Goldstein, vice president of the Montgomery Civic Federation and a frequent Duncan critic.

Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac came, but said his presence should not be interpreted as a slight to Duncan. He said he would go to any event where 200 people want to hear what is going on in Annapolis.

A number of the slow-growth liberals in the audience, meanwhile, appear to be lining up behind Leggett. Ewing appears likely to skip the county executive race, though he has not ruled it out, and the slow-growthers' visceral distaste for Councilman Steven A. Silverman (D-At large) of Silver Spring and his ties to developers has them willing to swallow their objections to some of Leggett's pro-growth stances.