So, the people behind the O'Malley Super-PAC are gigantic assholes.

[geek tragedy]

Not only do they go negative on Bernie Sanders in June with a borderline misleading ad

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/omalley-allies-launching-super-pac-ahead-of-his-presidential-launch/2015/05/27/37747a66-04ab-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html

They threw in this lovely dig at Hillary Clinton

“This is not your grandmother’s super PAC,” Damian O’Doherty, the group’s chief executive, said in an interview Wednesday.

The O'Malley supporters at DU have been the most positive, constructive and classy of the three camps.

This does not reflect upon them in any way.

The governor would be well advised to make it clear this crap is not what his campaign is about.
Trying to turn Bernie into Ted Nugent and calling Hillary "grandma" does not lead down a good path.

[azmom]

1. Wow, grandma? Ouch.

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. If he addresses it directly, he shatters the illusion

That he has no control over it.

I think expecting a Superpac to remain classy is a lost cause.

[geek tragedy]

3. There are certainly ways to communicate displeasure. nt

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. He could disavow them the way Warren disavowed the group trying to get her to run.

But tall that does is give them permission do what ever the fuck they want and claim that O'Malley is not in control of things done in his name.

This is not O'Malley's fault. It is the way that the sick system was created.

Sanders has sworn to refuse Super Pac help, but that does not stop some group from forming a Super Pac and do what ever they want.

[sabrina 1]

10. He says he is against money in politics, so why does he have a Super Pac? Bernie doesn't

and doesn't want one.

He was my second choice, until this happened. He has destroyed his chances right now, people were shocked and disgusted by this.

Bernie's response when asked about the negative Super Pac funded ad was classy as always. He will not use negative ads against opponents, he never has and never will, he said. 'This campaign will be issues based'.

And that is why he is such a breath of fresh air.

All over social media today, O'Malley was slammed with many believing now he is only in the race as a Clinton surrogate, to go after Bernie or whoever appears to be a real challenge to her. Right or wrong, that is the result of this disastrous decision.
'

[JonLP24]

16. The thought has occured to me

he was staying in the race to split the anti-Hillary vote. He did endorse her in '07 and he certainly does have his own ambitions but he is a very smart political strategist so trying to figure out what is going on here but avoiding the assumption as I don't know.

O'Malley was a late entrant into the 1999 Mayor's race two weeks before the filing deadline after city council ally Bell entered the race which led to a controversy of waiting to "split the black vote" which I have no idea if that was his plan or strategy -- just raises the questions but can't find much more than overview's of the mayor race in '99.

There he seemingly waited until he had a chance but here is staying in down 70% to Hillary Clinton and while numbers can change he's been running anti-this person campaigns since he began. Trying to appeal to the "Warren supporters".

[sabrina 1]

17. Well, if they thought that attacking Bernie with what has been a Hillary supporters talking point,

whoever thought it up, isn't very smart. Attacking Bernie is not going to get the Warren vote, quite the opposite actually. Now they see him as a possible spoiler. Saw it everywhere yesterday. Up to that point, I was happy with him as a candidate from the little I knew about him.

Now, no way would I trust him. First he is using Super Pacs while TALKING about money in politics and using the for purpose of attack ads, the very antithesis of what both Warren and Bernie supports want in our political dialogue.

It didn't harm Bernie but it sure harmed him. And he wasn't doing great to begin with.

[JonLP24]

22. He is using the gun thing to sink Bernie

When he was first starting out talking about the money in politics trying to attract to Warren crowd meaning the populist wing of the party. He never struck me as one to take seriously the problems he claims to be addressing.

This person does and mentions O'Malley's "short-term goals"

More than O'Malley this is a very good interview. Need more law enforcement like individuals like him

[Jim Lane]

41. O'Malley was effectively running while Sanders was still thinking about it.

O'Malley had paid staff in Iowa to help Democrats in the 2014 midterms (and, of course, to make contacts and build up chits for himself in a state that's far more important than it should be). At that point, Sanders wasn't sure he'd run, and hadn't even definitively ruled out running third party, although he was clearly leaning against that option. Certainly very few people expected that, if he ran, he'd have as much early buzz as he's been getting.

Thus it's clear that O'Malley didn't enter the race so as to help Clinton by undercutting a powerful challenger.

Is that, nevertheless, his purpose in staying in the race? Come on, his campaign is less than a month old. We're still several months from the first vote being cast. It wouldn't make sense for him to withdraw just because Sanders generated some early enthusiasm. There's no basis for saying that his failure to withdraw must be prompted by a desire to help Hillary.

Sanders may turn out to be the only viable alternative to Clinton, with O'Malley dropping out after distant third-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire. Then again, Sanders's surge in the polls may prove to be as evanescent as that of Bachmann/Cain/Perry/etc. in 2011-12. He may be a shooting star who's back down in single digits by year's end, while O'Malley has been making steady gains and picking up more support as people learn more about him (and as people decide that they're tired of Clinton). It's just too early to say.

BTW, on the splitting the vote thing, having multiple progressive challengers is generally no benefit to Clinton. First, as to delegates, Democratic Party rules prohibit winner-take-all primaries. Suppose there's a result like Clinton 45%, Sanders 40%, O'Malley 15%. Delegate allocation isn't purely proportional; Clinton would probably get a majority of the delegates. She wouldn't get anywhere near all of them, though. Also, if O'Malley were to drop out right before that primary, I wouldn't take it as given that his voters would break two-to-one for Sanders.

Delegate allocation isn't everything. On a 45-40-15 result, the 45 gets the media attention as the winner. On the other hand, I don't think Clinton is relishing the prospect of going up against two articulate progressives in the debates.

[FSogol]

5. Gotta agree with your opinion of that superpac.

It is certainly a departure from how O'Malley has been running things.

[geek tragedy]

6. I hate primary season. Not sure what people think

this accomplishes.

Gotta love Citizens United.

[Koinos]

7. No communication is allowed between super PACs and candidates.

O'Malley didn't know about this ad before it aired:

A spokesperson for O’Malley’s campaign said the former governor was not aware of the ad before it was released and that he doesn’t currently fundraise for Generation Forward.

http://time.com/3936562/martin-omalley-bernie-sanders/

Citizens United has to be reversed.

[JonLP24]

8. They also probably violated campaign finance laws

Campaign Finance Complaints Filed Against 4 Presidential Hopefuls

WASHINGTON — For months, White House hopefuls from both parties have been raising millions in unlimited contributions at upscale fund-raisers from Manhattan to Palm Springs, Calif. — all without officially declaring themselves candidates and becoming subject to federal caps on contributions.

Only a few of some 20 would-be presidential candidates have even bothered to set up the exploratory committees that were once a time-tested way to declare interest in the White House — and that set off their own fund-raising restrictions.

But two leading campaign finance groups charged on Tuesday that the spread of these unofficial campaigns in recent months was not only deceptive, but also illegal.

The groups, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, filed formal complaints with the Federal Election Commission against four undeclared candidates for president: Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum, all Republicans, and Martin O’Malley, a Democrat. Both organizations favor more restrictive regulations governing how political money is raised and spent.

<snip>

et they have skirted federal election law that requires candidates who are “testing the waters” for the White House to limit individual contributions to $2,700 and subject themselves to other restrictions, Mr. Ryan charged. Instead, news reports show that Mr. Bush and other candidates have used “super PACs” and other groups that can accept unlimited funds to rake in contributions at $100,000-a-head fund-raisers, even while they put off announcing their candidacies, he said.

“These guys aren’t just testing the waters for president,” Mr. Ryan said. “They’re soaking wet.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/campaign-finance-complaints-filed-against-4-presidential-hopefuls.html

I think the FEC is pretty much toothless these days to tell whether they really have merit or not but he certainly did go way out of his way to say he is running without I'm saying I'm running for the longest time but others -- particularly on the Republican side were "testing the waters" when it came to "testing the waters"

'I'm not a candidate': How presidential hopefuls get around finance rules

By the time the dinner rolls around in May, many, if not all, of these names are indeed likely to have declared themselves either to be candidates or at least formally “testing the waters” for a run at the White House. Once they do, they are bound by strict rules governing how they can raise funds and what they must declare.

<snip>

The big issue, and the one that is repeatedly being misreported in the press, is the question of when the candidate contribution limits kick in,” said Paul S Ryan, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by former John McCain lawyer Trevor Potter.

“I’ve seen a lot of incorrect reporting saying that they’re all saying they’re not candidates, because that way they don’t have to comply with contribution limits,” Ryan explained. “That’s not true. Contribution limits kick in as soon as you start raising and spending any money to start ‘testing the water’ to determine if you’ll run.

“The simple denial – ‘Oh, I’m not a candidate’ – that doesn’t get you out of the contribution limits. The only way to get out of the contribution limits is to say ‘I’m not even testing the waters’.”

<snip>

“I’m the only candidate who thinks that the NSA program on bulk collection of your phone records should be shut down,” boasted Kentucky senator Rand Paul during a recent session at the South By Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas.

After the reference to his candidacy was questioned online, a follow-up tweet hastily said Paul was talking about his status as a candidate for Kentucky senate election – though without explaining why he was campaigning for this race hundreds of miles away in Texas.

Others try to laugh off any such Freudian slips.

“I remember the last campaign,” reminisced Rick Santorum, who also ran in 2012, during one of several recent trips to Iowa. “Well, not that we’re in a campaign,” he added quickly, according to the Des Moines Register, which reported that the audience laughed as Santorum quipped: “The FEC is watching!”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/30/candidates-presidential-hopefuls-campaign-finance-fec

The Guardian's article was before the FEC complaint was filed so O'Malley wasn't part of the focus but posted to better explain what the complaint is about.

On his Super Pac he has employed "Hillraisers"

Why some donors are giving to dark horse Martin O'Malley

Though former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic frontrunner, leads by as much as 50 percent in some polls, there is some evidence that some former supporters are looking with interest at Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.

As many Democrats might have expected, O’Malley has attracted respectable support from within Maryland, as well as from some prominent former Obama supporters, such as the bundler Stewart Bainum.

But, more surprisingly, O’Malley’s early base of support also overlaps somewhat with Clinton’s network, even as she appears as poised as ever to run for president and swamp him in the race, at least at the outset.

One senior position on O’Malley’s political team has already been scooped up by a Clinton alum. Adam Goers, who served as Clinton’s midwest finance director during her bid for president, is the executive director at O’Malley’s federal political action committee, O’ Say Can You See PAC, known colloquially as “O’PAC.”

A similar story is being told in donations to the PAC, which brought in nearly $800,000 during the most recent fundraising quarter. Already, two former Clinton bundlers — so-called “Hillraisers” from the 2008 campaign — have stepped up to contribute thousands of dollars to O’Malley: Lainy Lebow-Sachs of Maryland and C. Thomas McMillen of Washington.

The donations don’t necessarily reflect dissatisfaction with Clinton.

Paul DiNino served as the Democratic National Committee’s national finance director under President Clinton, and he supported Hillary Clinton in 2008 — but he’s steering potential donors to O’Malley, making the case that it is a wise investment. Because O’Malley does not possess a vast donor network on par with Clinton’s, each big-money donor could wield that much more influence within O’Malley’s campaign, should it take flight.

<snip>

He has traveled on multiple occasions to Iowa, including last week, when O’Malley, the former chair of the Democratic Governors Association, campaigned with the state’s Democratic nominee for governor, Jack Hatch.

O’Malley has also traveled twice to New Hampshire to raise money for Gov. Maggie Hassan and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, campaigned in South Carolina in May for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen, and even made a trip in May to Nevada, another early primary state.

O’Malley has not yet decided, officially and publicly, to run for president, although he has been candid about seriously considering that avenue. There is also a sense, however, fortified by hints from O’Malley’s allies, that he might not follow through with a campaign should Clinton run for president.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-some-donors-are-giving-to-dark-horse-martin-omalley/article/2551602

His supporters have been very friendly I tend to bite my tongue on O'Malley but if he was clear on anything, it would be how much of a phony he really is -- talking about the American people need a President they can trust without recommending anyone except mention his accomplishments or things he is taking credit for. He's been doing nothing but slamming Hillary Clinton "A presidency is not some crown to be passed around between two families" -- he endorsed in '07

[FSogol]

13. Your screed fails to mention how the O'Malley pac (not the one geek tradgey mentioned)

did anything wrong. Fundraising is not illegal in this political climate and he did not have the same ethic lapses like the Repubs mentioned in that article.

Secondly, it is an Examiner link which is another Moonie organization filled rw wing clowns seeking to disrupt and divide Democrats.

And lastly, how the F is he a phoney? He doesn't just talk the talk, he has a whole list of liberal accomplishments from raising taxes on the rich to ending the death penalty. So, spare us the crappy RW sources that don't say what you pretend them to say.

x 3

[JonLP24]

15. The "testing the waters"

a candidate has to mention that at-least then the campaign limits & stuff like that kick in but going to battle ground states, hiring staff, fundraising, etc is the violation which the complaint is based in. I didn't pay attention who the link at the bottom was when clicking it. You'd have to ask the watchdog group who filed the complaint what it is they have basing the complaint. Outside of that potentially, probably, could have fits. Certainly agree it wasn't quite the ethical lapses.

I do favor what he did there but with his motivations, intentions, etc I never know what to expect but that the link wasn't who I was referring to when feeling that he is a phony. It his statements, things he says, saying Americans need a President they can trust without recommending anybody except to mention his accomplishments which is helpful to have fact-checkers around


Fact check: O'Malley lays claim to an ambitious record in Md.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-omalley-speech-facts-20150418-story.html#page=1

On the crime part it doesn't dig into much but he campaigned on a law-and-order ticket for mayor pushing zero tolerance policing and ramped up 100,000+ arrests in the year before his election for Governor pushing a reduction in crime numbers which reveal bigger problems.

From the 2005 year - same as the 100,000+ arrest year

Homicide Rate, Police Procedures Questioned
Mayor Will Not Ask For Independent Audit

ast year, the Baltimore City Police Department reported 269 homicides, but the State Medical Examiner's Office, which handles victims of homicides statewide, reported 275.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller reported the medical examiner reported a raw homicide number at 288. But 13 of those are cases don't count against the city's total.

<snip>



Text Size:
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BALTIMORE —A recent incident may indicate how far Baltimore police will go in questioning not the suspect, but the victim of a possible crime. This comes amid questions about the city's homicide rate for 2005.

Last year, the Baltimore City Police Department reported 269 homicides, but the State Medical Examiner's Office, which handles victims of homicides statewide, reported 275.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller reported the medical examiner reported a raw homicide number at 288. But 13 of those are cases don't count against the city's total.

Those 13 cases include justifiable homicides and the deaths of inmates in detention. Also included are three cases in which people died in car crashes caused by suspects fleeing from a scene.

When subtracted, the number of cases reported by the medical examiner drops to 275 -- six more than the 269 murders reported by the city police.

Police commanders said three of those cases involve the timing of homicide rulings by medical examiners. They continue to check the medical examiners numbers for an explanation of the remaining difference.

I-Team: Criminal Incidents Unreported

The latest questions come one day following the 11 News I-Team's report turning up criminal incidents in the city that have gone unreported.

One instance includes a fight in Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood that was declared unfounded because, according to the police commissioner, the two assault victims refused to cooperate.

Another incident includes a shooting last November in south Baltimore that officers did not write up -- even though police located and interviewed the intended target. Instead, it was lumped in with a robbery from the same night a short distance away, but that report makes no mention of the shooting.

Then, there's a complaint from a Baltimore woman in last month. Miller said she called police when she came home from an evening out to report that her belongings in her apartment had been moved around.

Miller reported the first officers to respond wrote a burglary report, but some time later a lieutenant stepped in to question the woman.

She described that questioning as "being drilled like the Spanish inquisition." She deemed the topic as something very private: her mental health.

<snip>

Miller said, to be sure, plenty of crimes in Baltimore do get recorded. The city holds the dubious distinction of the second most-dangerous city in the country, based on the number of crimes reported to the federal government.

But police officers in different parts of the city have described to the 11 News I-Team pressure from commanders to underreport incidents or make no record at all. These officers did not want to be identified because of the positions they hold.

<snip>

oug Ward, who was with the Maryland State Police at the time, has reviewed local police department crime reports. He said the revised crime statistics for 1999 still stick out as an unusual spike.

"It just seems odd there's one year significantly higher and nothing after, and it seemed odd because it was significantly out of what you would expect to see in the random deviation of those numbers," Ward said.

Miller said the results of that 1999 audit are critical to O'Malley because the numbers form the baseline from which he declares a near 40 percent reduction in violent crime during his administration.

On Tuesday, the mayor said he wouldn't object to an independent audit of the city's crime numbers now, but he will not be the one asking for it.

"No, I'm not asking for an independent audit. The, uh, no I'm not asking for one," O'Malley said.

http://www.wbaltv.com/Homicide-Rate-Police-Procedures-Questioned/8885162

Baltimore Sun did the audit for him


City rape investigations questioned

http://www.trbimg.com/img-518e5f3e/turbine/bs-md-ci-unfounded-rape-g.eps-20100627/613/613x345

You have to click link in graphic but you can see the spike in rape cases dismissed following 1999 peaking around the '05 or '06 years

Concerned that police departments nationwide fail to fully investigate rapes, a congressional committee scheduled an examination of the issue at a hearing spurred partly by a Baltimore Sun examination of the systemic underreporting of sex crimes. The Senate Crime and Drugs subcommittee has asked representatives of the Office of Violence Against Women to appear in Washington to discuss the problem, as well as a Pennsylvania woman jailed by police who erroneously accused her of making a false rape report.The Sun reported in July that Baltimore for years led the nation in the percentage of rape cases in which police concluded that the victim was lying, with more than 3 in 10 cases determined to be "unfounded." Other cities have seen disturbingly high percentages of uninvestigated or dropped rape cases in years past, and a women's advocate in Philadelphia pushed for the congressional hearing after the Sun's investigation reignited concerns. The newspaper's report "made me believe that all of the issues [in other cities] were not just idiosyncratic problems, but that there is likely a chronic and systemic failure in police departments," said Carol E. Tracy, head of the Women's Law Project in Philadelphia. "I think it's important to expose it, and to encourage the federal government, which has very little jurisdiction around this, to nevertheless exercise greater accountability on the data that it does receive." Tracy's group reviews rape reports marked as unfounded by Philadelphia police. The hearing was authorized by Sen. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Democrat and former prosecutor who heads the Judiciary Committee. The Sun analysis showed that four out of 10 calls to 911 over a five-year period had not generated a police report, having been dismissed by officers at the scene. Victims have reported being interrogated by detectives about their motives and truthfulness, while others said patrol officers ignored their allegations. Tribune

Half of discarded city rape claims were misclassified

This section has full collection of articles covering the failure to properly investigate rape cases
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-rape-cases-update-20101201-story.html#page=1

Comment sought from O'Malley

I sought comment yesterday from Gov. Martin O'Malley, who was mayor from December 1999 until January 2007 and throughout his career in public office has made crime his top priority (and a top campaign plank). He lightly chastised the media last week for not reporting more enthusiastically about the city's crime declines, so I wanted to know whether - in light of The Sun's reporting on the handling of these cases - he had confidence in the 63 percent drop in rapes.

Spokesman Shaun Adamec wrote in an e-mail reply that "multiple audits during his time as mayor demonstrate his commitment to relentless follow-up and adjustment with regard to proper reporting and enforcement."

Why, then, did the problems appear to only get worse the in the years after the audit? The percentage of "unfounded" cases jumped from 12 percent in 2003 to 32 percent in 2004, and peaked at 37 percent in 2006. Meanwhile the percentage of 911 calls that did not generate a report jumped from 30 percent to 42 percent from 2003 to 2004, where it still hovers today. That's hundreds of 911 calls each year with no documentation. For about half of those non-reports, no reason was given by officers, and the tapes no longer exist to go back and review them.

Pressed further, Adamec responded: "The Governor supports the efforts of the City to address this concern. It is a concern brought to his attention as Mayor, which is why he ordered multiple audits and adjustments to protocols to address it."

He did not elaborate on what those adjustments to protocols were.

"Under the governor's leadership, with the dedication of law enforcement and cooperation of communities throughout Maryland, we've driven violent crime, property crime and total crime to their lowest rates ever recorded," Adamec said.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2010/08/omalley_says_audits_showed_con.html

What I mean here is O'Malley takes credit for recorded crime drops but the truth of the matter there's been an effort across the board to avoid recording crimes. On the question the aide goes straight for the lowest crimes rates recorded. He isn't going to say similarly say we've had an increase in rape cases dismissed. In fact led the country during those years.

Rawlings-Blake criticism highlights debate over police strategy under O'Malley

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a longtime ally of the current governor, has nonetheless repeatedly criticized the "zero-tolerance" crime-fighting strategy O'Malley championed as mayor from 1999 to 2006 — an effort that led the city to sign an $870,000 settlement and that some say has had a lasting negative effect.

<snip>

"Despite the protests of the ideologues on the left — who see all increases in arrests, police response or enforcement as bad — discourtesy and excessive-force complaints actually went down," O'Malley wrote in an op-ed in The Baltimore Sun last fall. "So long as levels of enforcement continue to decline, shootings and homicides will continue to go up."

Rawlings-Blake disputed the assertion, arguing that while "returning to the days of mass arrests … might be a good talking point," it had proven "a far less effective strategy for actually reducing crime."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-police-omalley-politics-20141007-story.html#page=1

Aside from not being honest -- being that the 100,000+ arrest campaign violated civil liberties which the city was hit with the nearly million settlement. He doubles-down in support of very bad policies that do little to address what he claims that they're addressing. He doesn't strike me as someone as someone who is serious like the anti-wall street rhetoric recently coming from outside of talking points he uses to advance to higher offices.

It would certainly be great if O'Malley, long considered a moderate -- recently believed to be a progressive would certainly be the President Americans can trust but I don't trust his rhetoric. The second term he was certainly thinking about running for President. I believe there are term limits in Maryland for governor unless I'm mistaken don't know if that was to set him up for the primary, he was long considered a potential candidate. I certainly support abolishing the death penalty and among other things and hopefully a sign of continuing these type of policies but not sure what to expect and if he admitted where he was wrong that would help but certainly don't need the wrong solutions to address the problems like with the zero tolerance stuff.

I had no intention of looking to Washington Times, didn't pay attention to the link came across in through the Google with the headline. I'll try to avoid it if I can -- usually do with Washington Times but didn't look past the headline and first several paragraphs though do wonder if much of that can be independently verified.

[FSogol]

23. So all you have is more BS and then throw out that he's a moderate?

If his record on policing in Baltimore was so terrible, why was he reelected Mayor of Baltimore (a city that is predominately African American) with 87% of the vote?

DUer Bigtree has the best thread on Baltimore at the time with actual links, not RW links. It can be found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/128164

Also, here's what O'Malley did for Baltimore:

Made Baltimore City A Safer Place
O’Malley was elected on a mandate to make Baltimore safer. Under his leadership, Baltimore achieved the steepest reduction in crime of any major city, while bringing homicides below 300 per year for the first time in a decade. O’Malley also expanded services drug treatment, doubling funding and leading the way to a 30% drop in the number of overdose deaths.

Policed the Police
O’Malley’s administration took strong steps to police the police – increasing minority hiring, improving accountability, and fully staffing a civilian review board. Under his leadership, the city reduced police shootings to their lowest level in a decade.

Revitalized Baltimore’s Economy
As crime dropped under O’Malley’s leadership, commercial investment and housing values doubled. O’Malley also improved Baltimore’s schools, taking steps that increased graduation rates by 25% and made impressive gains in student test scores. Under O’Malley, Baltimore’s decades long population slide finally ended.

Restored Fiscal Management
O’Malley brought the city’s budget under control, producing the first surplus in decades, while cutting property taxes to their lowest levels in 30 years. These efforts in “very strong fiscal management” earned Baltimore a bond upgrade from negative to positive.

PS: You still haven't said what exactly his O'Say pac supposedly did wrong, you instead tried to Gish Gallop more BS past everyone. Don't like O'Malley, that's fine with me, but spare us a bunch crappy hit pieces and your incorrect guesswork.

PPS: Your chart shows that unreported rapes increased after he left the Mayor's office, but nice try, Gish.

[JonLP24]

31. I posted the complaint filed by the watchdog group

anything more take it with them but you're clearly dismissing anything that is inconvienent as RW links and go straight to the whole reduction thing. It was clear many crimes weren't accurately recorded -- there are far more than just the local investigative journalists pointing all this out like the 100,000+ arrest thing didn't happen or the rise in rape cases dismissed. There are 3 pages of articles covering this -- the one I included the lack of comment from the O'Malley administration. They increased from 1999 and continued the upward trajectory path -- 2010 was when they started.

Like I said take it up with watchdog group that filed the complaint. I simply pointed out what the "testing the waters" requirement was and what they're saying he violated.

If it is BS -- don't know what the evidence the watchdog group which is why I said probably, potentially, could have, maybe, etc. Maybe they didn't. I didn't say he DID. As far as anything else they aren't RW links and not hit pieces but investigative journalist pieces not their fault the homicide rates was higher coming out of the medical examiner's officer than it was coming out of the police department -- the same with those so-called reductions. Not me that is trying to get BS past anyone.

[FSogol]

35. "The Washington Post wrote at the time that "no evidence has surfaced of a systemic manipulation of

of crime statistics"

From 2006:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201812.html

[bigtree]

36. more

WaPo fact-checker

O’Malley is referring to 1999-2009 data from the FBI, which tracks crimes reported to law enforcement agencies. Part 1 crimes are serious crimes that are likely to be reported to police, and are divided into violent and property crimes. These crimes include criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson and motor vehicle theft.

O’Malley usually clarifies that he is referring to Part 1 (i.e., overall) crimes.

FBI data confirm his calculation. The overall crime rate (the number of crimes per 100,000 people) fell by 48 percent during that decade, more than any other large police agency in the country. Specifically for violent crimes, the Baltimore City Police Department saw the third highest drop (behind Los Angeles and New York City) during the period.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/28/omalleys-claim-about-crime-rates-in-baltimore/


...Baltimore crime rates, across the board, made a steady decline DURING his term:

check the statistics: http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Baltimore-Maryland.html

[FSogol]

37. Thanks for setting the record straight. n/t

[JonLP24]

40. Do rape cases that are improperly dismissed make it to the FBI crime totals?

[JonLP24]

38. The article does a very great job of explaining how it cuts both ways

In 2006 by 2010 and later revealed a lot more on the under reporting on rape cases and they being improperly dismissed, among other things. He takes credit for reduced crime but there to take responsibility but either the numbers and reality are two different things he'd be better off acknowledging.

This will probably be dismissed as another Republican hit piece but he tells the whole truth

O'Malley's bad math

<snip>
A year later, after Police Commissioner Ed Norris had trimmed 43 murders to drop Baltimore under the 300-homicide-a-year mark for the first time in a decade, Mr. O’Malley could note — and did note to the New York Times — that the achievement had come without any corresponding increase in the rate of arrest.

“It never happened,” the new mayor said, proudly. “We turned the murder rate by doing a better job of arresting the hard-core criminals.”

And they had. And though Mr. O’Malley at that time claimed an annual arrest total of 78,000 — it would eventually be recorded as 8,000 more than that — he was justified in contending that his administration had made a meaningful and substantial reduction in the murder rate and had done so without resorting to the mass arrests and overpolicing that his opponents had feared.

The quote was telling in that the new mayor clearly understood that while much was being claimed for the Guiliani-Bratton policing methods in New York, there could be a civic cost to indulging in an excess of street arrests in communities that had already come to look upon the Baltimore department with considerable distrust. Mr. O’Malley was instead citing quality over quantity, and making that a hallmark of his new administration.

<snip>

True, the O’Malley administration had played one crisp game with the stats at the onset — giving a 13 percent bump to the crime stats for the last year of predecessor Kurt Schmoke’s administration and setting themselves to reap the benefit. Arguing that an internal review of Mr. Schmoke’s last year of crime fighting had revealed a substantial number of felonies that were downgraded improperly, the O’Malley administration went to labored effort to restore those stats to the FBI’s uniformed crime totals, notably dumping thousands more aggravated assaults in the 1999 totals. Henceforth, any thinning down of those fatted numbers would be credited to Martin O’Malley. The new mayor had given himself a double-digit jump on any Baltimore Miracle to come.

But again, the first year of the O’Malley anti-crime campaign was legit, and promising. Murders had come down, the clearance rate had gone up, and all of this had been achieved without some draconian policy of mass arrest afflicting Baltimore’s poor, as many had feared. The assault stats, too, seemed plausible for those first three years, and certainly, the drop in the murder rate was honest; no police commander anywhere has figured out how to hide the bodies.

<snip>
(the Washington Post link you provided mentions the audit of Mr. Schmoke's crime numbers so he ran with the accusation of crimes being improperly downgraded which very serious ones were happening under his watch too but anything good that happens he'll take credit for)

<snip>

And something else happened in 2003: Mr. O’Malley tossed the Fourth Amendment out a window and began using the police department to sweep the corners and rowhouse stoops and, in a lament that Mr. Norris offered me years later, “lock up damn near everyone.” Total arrests soared to 114,000 in a city of little more than 600,000, an increase of more than 30 percent over the restraint in which the mayor had taken pride after his first year. Instead, Baltimore was on its way to being successfully sued by rights groups for a mass and willful violation of its citizens’ civil liberties.

http://davidsimon.com/omalley-bad-math/

All this or anything similar related to this or other issues was added to explain why I felt he was a phony. People that are genuinely interested & serious in addressing problems discuss the full and complete picture. Everything was more about moving on to the next higher office for O'Malley -- which is what policies and rhetoric were mostly about rather than the right solutions for the problem. Instead of him acknowledging that he slams the critiques "ideologues on the left". I have nothing against him personally, to tell the truth I don't trust pretty much none of the politicians. I make an exception with Sanders who I more than half-way trust due to his long record and experience, I know a little more what to expect and even with Hillary Clinton which would be a doubling down on foreign policy.

[Cheese Sandwich]

11. I doubt it's a coincidence these attacks from O'Malley and Claire McCaskill came on the same day

[FSogol]

14. ALCOA!

[Cha]

12. Yeah, remind people that Hillary is a Grandmother.. that will backfire and work in her favor I think

Grandmothers vote! lol

[sabrina 1]

18. Actually I think that is in her favor. People love grandmothers. Same thing with Bernie who is a

proud grandfather. He doesn't mind being called 'grandpa', it's one of the things that motivates him, he says, to make a better world for his grandchildren.

[misterhighwasted]

34. What an Insult to all Proud Gramas with a Vote to be Cast & Campaign Money Saved and Ready to Donate

And there are a lot of them.
Hillary Clinton & Emily's List sincerely thank you for sending more female voters their way.

[leftofcool]

19. This one sure does!

[dembotoz]

20. Lordy lordy if folks are upset about a gma reference they sure have not been seeing what GOP says

[Andy823]

28. Not just the GOP

I have seen a hundred times worse remarks about Hillary right here on DU!

[NCTraveler]

21. I just don't think it's that bad.

I love how some have immediately put it at the feet of Hillary. It's the Limbaugh effect.

[Andy823]

29. I know it's crazy

It's a PAC, it does what it wants without input from O'Malley, and certainly with no input from Hillary. The idea that anytime someone goes after Bernie it has to be all Hillary's fault it just crazy!

[Jamaal510]

43. It doesn't make sense

when you think about it. HC is miles ahead of 2nd place in the D primaries so far, so what good would it do for her to attack anyone now? In fact, all that would do is give her rivals some much-needed publicity and possibly have people check them out.

[WillyT]

24. Hey geek !!! - Saw This yesterday... Any Relation ???

In early 2005, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich fired aide Joseph Steffen for spreading rumors of marital infidelity about O'Malley on the Internet. O'Malley and his wife had previously held a highly publicized press conference to deny the rumors and accuse Republicans of partisan politics. The discussions in which Steffen posted the rumors were initiated by an anonymous user going by the name "MD4Bush", later revealed to be Maryland Democratic Party official Ryan O'Doherty.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_O'Malley

[geek tragedy]

25. Damian O'Doherty was appointed by O'Malley to at least one commission

So I don't think that's the angle.

But, Damian O'Malley is like a turbo Third Wayer

http://www.kopublicaffairs.com/index.php/damian-o-doherty

From his first television ad, at age 28, hitting the front pages of the Washington Post to his firm's most recent game-changing, national top 10 election week ad in 2012, Damian has always believed that the biggest wins for businesses start and end with the voters. Principal and co-founder of Kearney O’Doherty (KO) Public Affairs, LLC, O’Doherty is a strategic communications and policy advisor to corporate clients in energy, real estate, healthcare, and transportation. The firm’s signature accomplishments include the historic repeal of Maryland’s computer services tax, helping secure regulatory approval of a numerous Fortune 500 mergers, voter passage of legalizing gaming in Maryland, and winning passage of 13.5 million square feet of new office, retail and housing in one of the nation’s original planned communities. In 2011, the Maryland Daily Record recognized O’Doherty as one of its Very Important Professionals.

The Baltimore Examiner dubbed O’Doherty as “one of the rising stars in state political circles” while he served as Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith’s top advisor. The newspaper noted that O’Doherty served Baltimore County “as a critical link to the O’Malley administration.” In Baltimore County, Damian led a dedicated team that served a jurisdiction of 800,000 residents and helped the County Executive earn the National Association of Counties, County Executive of the Year Award, for the passage of a first of its kind community-based redevelopment plan driven by expert-led charrettes.

Before working for a jurisdiction larger than four states, O’Doherty served as General Counsel and Vice President of Government Affairs for the Mid-Atlantic’s largest real-estate trade association, GCAAR, where he built and led a successful coalition of interests to build a $2.4 billion highway in Suburban Washington. He led government affairs at the state, local and federal level for members in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

O’Doherty started his career as a staffer in the Senate of Maryland for two consecutive Majority Leaders and was among the youngest ever to be appointed as Counsel to the Senate of Maryland at age 25. Damian served as Committee Counsel to Chairman Clarence W. Blount in the State Senate and served as a staffer to the Baltimore City Senate Delegation.

O’Doherty currently advises numerous centrist officeholders and candidates and co-founded the leading Maryland news site, Center Maryland. Governor O'Malley appointed Damian to the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, where he served as Chairman of the Board. Governor Glendening previously appointed Damian to the Maryland Higher Education Commission. He is a Trustee of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Damian earned a juris doctorate from the University of Baltimore. O’Doherty is a member of the Maryland Bar. With an annual celebration called St. Patrick's Wake, O'Doherty celebrates the Maryland legal community, his family's legacy in the law and his Baltimore Irish-Catholic roots with a popular annual fete for Maryland's legal elite.

Damian loves all things Baltimore and Maryland. He was tapped to brand and plan Maryland's welcome home parade and party for legendary hometown Olympian Michael Phelps. He served two terms on the Board of the National Aquarium in Baltimore and founded the Baltimore/Washington Chapter of Back on My Feet – a national homeless advocacy organization that promotes running as a road to recovery from addiction.

Civic Involvement:

Founder, Center Maryland – a centrist news organization: www.centermaryland.org.
Chairman, Baltimore Chapter of Back on My Feet –a national homeless advocacy organization: www.backonmyfeet.org.
Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership, Class of 2006: www.gbc.org.

[WillyT]

26. Thanks !!!

[FSogol]

33. The Democrats were not involved in this scandal.

It originated at freerepublic and was picked up by Ehrlich aid, Steffen. Wiki seems to be incorrect here since the link the posted statement refers to does not discuss Ryan O'Doherty.

Here's the Baltimore Sun articles on Ehrlich and Steffen rumor mongering:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bal-omalleypic0209-photo.html

[Koinos]

27. Super PACS for Bernie Sanders

Whether he likes it or not, super PACs are forming to aid Bernie Sanders' campaign.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/30/sanders-unable-superpacs/28184005/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/05/30/pacs-promote-sanders/28159039/

[Andy823]

30. Yes it's simply par of running for president.

Those who want to blame Hillary, or O'Malley for something a PAC does, better be willing to blame Bernie when a PAC for him does the same thing!

[Xyzse]

32. That is sad. I believe Super PACs should have no relations with the candidate.

You are absolutely right, the ones organizing this PAC really should look at themselves properly and try to be more positive.

Looks like O'Malley didn't know about what they did either till after the fact.

[Jefferson23]

39. I don't know if O'Malley is supportive of this PAC but you're right, thank CU.

The bottom line is, who is best placed to build a movement to over turn CU,
and then push for public funded elections?

I do not see how O'Malley is going to lead the way when he has had trouble
gaining wider attention..this PAC does not help that cause.

[elleng]

42. Thanks, geek.

We do our best.