Martin O'Malley (The More Things Changed)

Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American politician who is the fifth and current United States Secretary of Homeland Security. He previously served as the 61st Governor of Maryland and as the 47th Mayor of Baltimore.

O'Malley publicly announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2016 Presidential election in Baltimore on May 30, 2015. Winning eight states and 4.8 million votes, O'Malley came in third place, behind former Secretary of State and Senator from Virginia Hillary Clinton and Representative Bernie Sanders of New York.

President-elect Clinton announced her selection of O'Malley as her choice to lead the Homeland Security Department on November 23, 2016. On January 20th, 2017, he was sworn in as the fifth United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

Early Life and Education
O'Malley was born on January 18, 1963, in Washington, D.C., the son of Thomas - an Air Force pilot in the Second World War - and Barbara - a legislative aide to United States Senator Barbara Mikulski.

O’Malley graduated from Catholic University, and earned his law degree from the University of Maryland in 1988; he was admitted to the bar that same year.

Early Political Career
In 1982, joined the Gary Hart presidential campaign, later volunteering in Iowa to organize volunteers and rally caucus-goers. In 1986, O'Malley served as a state field director for Barbara Mikulski's successful bid for the Senate, and later served as a legislative fellow in her office. That same year, he became assistant State's Attorney for Baltimore.

In 1991, he was elected to the Baltimore City Council from the 3rd District. During his tenure, he chaired both the Legislative Investigations Committee and the Taxation and Finance Committee.

Elections
After Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke decided against standing for re-election in 1999, O'Malley announced his intention to run for the office, focusing his campaign on reducing crime. Although he started as an underdog with low name recognition, he received several key endorsements within the city's African-American community and went on to win the primary election with 53% of the vote; he later secured 91% of the vote in the general election, becoming the city's youngest Mayor.

The following election cycle, he won re-election with an 89% majority.

Tenure


In his first year in office, O'Malley adopted a statistics-based tracking system called CitiStat, modeled after Compstat, a crime-management program. In 2006, the Washington Post wrote that the program had "saved an estimated $350 million and helped generate the city's first budget surplus in years." The program won Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government Award, and TIME Magazine named O’Malley “one of America’s top five big city mayors.”

Budget
O'Malley called a special session of the General Assembly in November 2007 to close a projected budget deficit of $1.7 billion for 2008–2009, in which he and other lawmakers passed a tax plan that would raise total state tax collections by 14%. In April 2009, he signed the traffic speed camera enforcement law he had supported and fought for to help raise revenue to try to overcome an imminent state deficit. Through his strenuous lobbying, the measure was revived after an initial defeat and passed on a second vote.

Maryland StateStat


One of O'Malley's first actions as governor was to implement the same CitiStat system he used to manage the city Baltimore as mayor on a statewide level. At its core, the program relied on data-driven metrics to pinpoint hotspots for crime and areas of potential development. Speaking about StateStat, O'Malley has said:

"'A map doesn't know if a neighborhood is black or white, blue or green, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican,' he said. 'The map knows where the challenges are, where the problems are. It tells us where we need to deploy our limited resources in order to attack those challenges.'"

Immigration
During his re-election bid in 2010, O'Malley referred to undocumented immigrants as "new Americans," a term he has continued to use throughout the rest of his public service. On May 10, 2011, he signed an immigration tuition bill. extending in-state tuition breaks to undocumented immigrants and their families. In a referendum on the law the following year, it survived with over 58% approval.

Same-Sex Marriage
On March 1, 2012, O'Malley signed the Civil Marriage Protection Act, legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland. Archbishop f Baltimore Edwin O'Brien had urged the Governor to reject the bill - in response, O'Malley said:

"'I do not presume, nor would I ever presume as Governor, to question or infringe upon your freedom to define, to preach about, and to administer the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. But on the public issue of granting equal civil marital rights to same-sex couples, you and I disagree.'"

Opponents of the law had collected enough signatures to force a referendum on the law, which was sustained with a 53% majority of the state's vote.

Hurricane Gonzalo
Hurricane Gonzalo was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, and the costliest hurricane in United States history. While it was a Category 3 storm off the coast of the Southeastern United States, the storm became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record (as measured by diameter, with winds spanning 1,300 miles). Estimates as of 2015 assessed damage to have been about $112 billion (2014 USD), a total surpassing Hurricane Katrina. At least 561 people were killed along the path of the storm in eight countries.

Governor O'Malley received wide praise for his handling of the hurricane. With his outreach to Pepco and Baltimore Gas & Electric, over 3,000 emergency personnel were brought in from other states to keep the lights on in homes and businesses. Numerous areas were ordered to be evacuated including part of Ocean City, Worcester County, Wicomico County, and Somerset County.

2016 Presidential Campaign
Main Article: Martin O'Malley presidential Campaign, 2016



The day prior to his announcement, May 29, O'Malley released a video of himself strumming the presidential fanfare Hail to the Chief on his guitar, alluding to his impending announcement. O'Malley launched his bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination the following day, on May 30.

O'Malley received over 4.8 million votes and won eight states, including Nevada, Illinois, Florida, and Texas. He suspended his campaign on April 26th, 2016, following the "Acela primaries."

Secretary of Homeland Security
President-elect Clinton announced her selection of O'Malley as her choice to lead the Homeland Security Department on November 23, 2016. On January 20th, 2017, he was sworn in as the fifth United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

Tenure
As Secretary of Homeland Security, O’Malley has continued his “all crimes and all hazards” approach to develop core capacities for a wide variety of law enforcement and homeland security applications. The technology he deployed to identify license plates as Governor, for example, was capable of tracking down terrorist suspects and seniors with Alzheimer’s, and deployed inter-operable radio communications for first responders statewide, for use during hurricanes and possible terrorist attacks; he has pushed for these technologies to be adopted nationwide.

AmeriStat
In the mould of CitiStat in Baltimore and StateStat in Maryland, as head of Homeland Security, O'Malley has pushed for AmeriStat - a nationwide combination of management, philosophy, and organizational management tools for police departments and emergency responders, based on performance-based metrics.

12 Goals


Secretary O'Malley has outlined 12 "core capacities" for his department. These include:
 * Interoperable Communications
 * Intelligence/Information Sharing
 * HAZ MAT/Explosive Device Response
 * Protective Equipment for First Responders
 * Biosurveillance
 * Cybersecurity
 * Preparedness Exercises
 * Closed-Circut Television (CCTV)
 * Mass Casualty/Hospital Surge Preparedness
 * Emergency Planning
 * Backup Power and Communications
 * Transportation Security

National Dashboard on Overdose
The National Dashboard on Overdose was created on February 6th, 2017, and is overseen by Sherri A. Berger, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer at the CDC. The Dashboard tracks the nationwide response, targets resources, and collects and shares data with law enforcement, first responders, and physicians. It is tasked with guiding $12 billion in federal investments and partnerships over the next decade.

Legal Challenges
Sheriff Richard Butler, of Jones County, Ohio, has been an opponent of having his deputies administer Narcan since he was first elected in 2004. In April 2017, Butler sued the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to share data about opioids in his county on the grounds that doing so would only promote the use of naloxone, and, by extension, the use of opioids.

The case Butler County Sheriff's Office v. Department of Homeland Security is currently being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Personal Life
O'Malley met his wife, Catherine "Katie" Curran, in 1986 while he was working on Barbara Mikulski's U.S. Senate campaign and she was working on her father's campaign for Attorney General of Maryland.

O'Malley's March


O'Malley had grown up steeped in the rich Irish musical traditions of his ancestry; he has described himself as "raised on the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, educated by the Jesuits and Wolfe Tones, emboldened by Shane MacGowan, and seasoned by Christy Moore.

O'Malley is best known in the musical world for his band O'Malley's March, formed in 1988 and currently featuring seven members.