C. Fraser Smith: One favor deserves another

Endorsements don’t mean much in politics these days. Money is much more powerful.

But there are dramatic exceptions.

Martin O’Malley might not be governor today without the quiet support of a then-virtually unknown Baltimore councilwoman, Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake — now Baltimore’s mayor.

She urged her father, the late Howard P. “Pete” Rawlings, to endorse O’Malley for mayor of Baltimore 12 years ago. Without her words and her father’s agreement, O’Malley might not have won the election. Absent that victory, he might have been out of politics. Running for governor would not have been a serious option.

The leading black candidates in 1999 had serious vulnerabilities. One of them was going to win as the lesser of two underwhelming choices. After discussions with other black leaders and after other candidates — including former congressman Kweisi Mfume — chose not to run, Rawlings was ready to announce his choice.

Then his daughter spoke up for O’Malley. She spoke about the father-daughter conversation in an interview with The Sun last year:

“I told my dad ‘The only thing he [O’Malley] is not is black. If he was a grandstanding, arrogant, add-your-other-adjective black person, everyone at this table would be on board. You didn’t help me get all this education to continue down the old-school way of thinking.’ ”

O’Malley, she said, would be the best mayor – and her father agreed.

Taking a risk

It was a risky thing for both father and daughter.

Then chairman of the state House Appropriations Committee, Rawlings was one of the most influential figures in city politics. He had become a master of the process in Annapolis, and he was not reluctant to involve himself in Baltimore, opposing mayors and judges and university presidents when he thought he was right on an issue.

He had as much black pride as any political leader in the city, but he valued competent leadership. He knew he would have to deal with whoever moved into city hall.

He had trust in the process: He was chairman of a major money committee because he had moved up “through the chairs,” working hard and learning the job.

O’Malley won the race, coming, as they say in politics, “down the middle” between the two black contenders. There were those in the city who resented Rawlings’ decision, thinking that the majority black city should have had a black mayor. Rawlings never looked back or regretted his decision.

At the time, his daughter was essentially a City Council back bencher, learning the job and moving forward steadily. She was not without ambition, it turns out, moving up into the council president’s chair. She did that job efficiently and well, displaying the stoic resolve her father had been famous for.

Returning a favor

He would have been as surprised as many in the city by the turn of events that moved his daughter quickly into the mayor’s office — though it might only have been the speed that surprised him.

He would have been amused — smiling his impish smile — to see her in a position to claim some recompense from O’Malley. The father might well have told his daughter not to expect anything in return. The right decision would be its own reward. But he would not have been against such a felicitous result either.

Now Governor O’Malley is in a position to return the favor. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake could use a major endorsement herself as she seeks election to the office that became hers last year with the resignation of Sheila Dixon. There’s no doubt she will get it — and more.

O’Malley’s political organization, tuned up and ready to go after his big win last year, will be at her disposal. The governor’s fundraising prowess presumably will be available to her, and the governor’s brother, Peter, is chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party.

She’s probably in very good shape for the upcoming election anyway, but an O’Malley endorsement would make things even.

After all, one good endorsement deserves another.

C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst at WYPR-FM. His column appears Fridays in The Daily Record. His e-mail address is [email protected].