Nation/World

O'Malley counting on debate to urge voters to think beyond 2 Democrats

WASHINGTON — Former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland has been introducing himself to Democratic voters for months in speeches, at chicken dinners and most recently in a Snapchat video in which he is shown studying on his iPad while doing a plank, in a tank top, at the gym.

But he still is almost nowhere in the polls.

On Tuesday he will have what could be his best chance to grab the kind of attention that could get his candidacy off the ground.

The first Democratic presidential debate will give O'Malley the opportunity to share a stage, and the spotlight, with Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — who have marginalized him so far this year, leaving him with little in the way of media attention, voter support or donations.

The event, to be held in Las Vegas and hosted by CNN, is also the only one of the four Democratic debates scheduled for a weeknight — meaning that viewership is not likely to increase at the others.

O'Malley acknowledged this week that the debates would be "make or break."

"Right now, the people in my party, the only two candidates people have heard of are the inevitable front-runner and the senator from Vermont," he told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. "So once the debates happen, people will be able to hear from all of the candidates."

ADVERTISEMENT

A talented politician and forceful speaker with a long record of accomplishment, O'Malley, 52, began his campaign in May with a great deal of potential. He has assiduously courted Democratic activists and has delivered well-received speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire, promoting his early advocacy for same-sex marriage in Maryland and his liberal views on immigration.

Yet his efforts have yielded little support. O'Malley's polling average on the website Real Clear Politics stands at 0.7 percent.

"People would pay big money if they could fix that problem," said Kevin Geiken, an Iowa-based Democratic operative who is not committed to a candidate but praises O'Malley's political talent and what he called his in-depth focus on issues. "It seems to be sort of a curious thing with him. His speeches are all received very enthusiastically. It seems like he's doing the work in policy, he's doing the work getting people excited — but it's not showing up in the polls."

The same is true in New Hampshire.

"I've seen him," state Rep. Steve Shurtleff, who is not yet supporting a candidate, said. "He was very good, and the crowd seemed to appreciate his remarks."

So why isn't O'Malley attracting greater interest? "I really don't know," Shurtleff said.

His allies say they expect him to gain attention later this year, when voters in the early primary states begin sharpening their preferences. Until then, O'Malley is trying to position himself to pick up support if there are major shifts in the race.

He has also become overtly critical of Clinton, after refraining from mentioning her name early on. And, showing flashes of outrage — or a toothy grin — he has lobbed verbal grenades at the Democratic National Committee, accusing it of scheduling the primary debates to aid Clinton while starving her rivals of critical exposure.

O'Malley was one of the few Democrats willing to publicly and frequently defend President Barack Obama during his 2012 re-election campaign. But he may tone down the aggressiveness during Tuesday's debate, his first appearance in front of a large national television audience, when voters are just getting to know him.

O'Malley has made no secret of how he will portray himself as the most progressive alternative to Clinton. On the campaign trail he blasts what he calls the lax regulation of Wall Street. He notes his support for gun control laws as governor of Maryland, his signing of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage that survived a referendum to overturn it, and Maryland's enactment of in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants at state colleges and universities.

He came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in April, although he appeared open to supporting it in 2013; Clinton declared her opposition to the pact Wednesday. And privately, O'Malley has described himself to voters who had clamored for Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to run as the candidate who most shares her views.

More recently on gun control, O'Malley has repeatedly called for reinstating the assault-weapons ban since the mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. That could give him an opening to attack both Sanders — who was friendly to the gun lobby in Vermont for years — and Clinton, whose recollections in the 2008 presidential primary of being taught to shoot by her father prompted then-Sen. Obama to say, "She's talking like she's Annie Oakley!"

At a taping of "Iowa Press," O'Malley said, "Secretary Clinton can come on the show and answer for herself why she shifted her positions on so many issues over the course of these last few months."

Clinton would have an easy response to just about any attack from O'Malley: He supported her in that 2008 contest, and wrote an op-ed essay in which he praised the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, of which he was once a member.

"O'Malley was one of Sen. Clinton's strongest and most vociferous supporters in 2008 — a fact that I'm pretty sure is not lost on Hillary, who will have those quotes in her pocket on Tuesday night," said David Axelrod, once Obama's chief strategist. "It could make his task a little more complicated in drawing contrasts."

O'Malley could also face tough questioning about his time as mayor of Baltimore beginning in 1999, where he put in place the type of tough-on-crime practices that members of the Black Lives Matter movement say led to the use of excessive force by police officers. O'Malley's campaign kickoff came weeks after the death of Freddie Gray, who died in April of a spinal cord injury while he was in Baltimore police custody, set off days of protests and looting.

O'Malley's luck has scarcely improved since. With Sanders the fiercer threat to Clinton, the super PAC coordinating with Clinton's campaign, Correct the Record, no longer routinely sends a tracker to O'Malley's events to record material to use against him.

ADVERTISEMENT

Yet asked in Washington this week about his chances in Tuesday's debate, O'Malley sounded decidedly upbeat.

"I believe our country is looking for new leadership," O'Malley told reporters, according to a transcript provided by his campaign. "We can't be this dissatisfied with our national politics and our national economy, and resort to old names to break us out of this gridlock of inaction. America is looking for a new leader."

ADVERTISEMENT