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Candidate Profile: Martin O’Malley

Current Office: None

Age: 52 (born January 18, 1963)

Party: Democrat

Real Clear Politics Poll Average: (as of December 20, 2015): National 4.3% (3rd); Iowa 5.0% (3rd); New Hampshire 1.3% (3rd) [out of three candidates]1

Campaign Website: martinomalley.com

Martin O’Malley is seeking the Democratic nomination for President. He served two terms as Governor of Maryland (2007-2015) and two terms as Mayor of Baltimore (1999-2007).

Immigration:

Martin O’Malley not only supports both DACA [see blog] and DAPA, but pledges to extend deferred action to “the greatest possible number of new Americans.” O’Malley would issue more waivers to the three and ten-year bars of inadmissibility [see article] and the permanent bar of inadmissibility [see article]. He would expand the use of parole-in-place [see article]. O’Malley supports a path to citizenship for those here illegally. He would limit the use of immigration detention. O’Malley would allow DACA and DAPA recipients to obtain health coverage under Obamacare.

O’Malley pledges to modernize our border security. He would “respect the autonomy of states and localities in immigration enforcement.” He also proposes a new independent executive branch agency that would make recommendations for new immigration policy.

Israel:

Martin O’Malley’s public statements have been generally supportive of Israel. However, O’Malley recently and perplexingly stated that “both sides” need to take steps to end the recent spate of terroristic stabbing attacks against Israelis, although he subsequently attempted to clarify by saying that “Abbas and other Palestinian leaders must … condemn these attacks in no uncertain terms.”2 O’Malley supports the terrible Iran deal but states that if Iran does not live up to the agreement, sanctions should be reinstated. However, he does not however state how he would get other countries to go along with reinstating sanctions.

Issue of Interest – Taxation:

Martin O’Malley touts his success on taxation in Maryland, including signing legislation to raise the top and corporate tax rates. However, it is important to remember that a state can only collect the income taxes of the people who live and do business in the state. According to the Census Bureau, 72,000 people left Maryland between 2007 and 2014, significantly reducing the number of people who were present to pay for then-Governor O’Malley’s tax increases.3

We can only wonder if this is part of the reason that voters in the largely Democratic Maryland decided to elect a Republican, now-Governor Larry Hogan, to succeed then-Governor O’Malley instead of his own Lieutenant Governor.

Conclusion:

Martin O’Malley is a fairly typical tax-and-spend liberal Democrat who seems to have virtually no chance of winning the Democratic nomination. It should go without saying that I do not consider this a great loss. As with the other two Democratic candidates, his immigration proposals would, taken as a whole, incentivize illegal immigration by providing benefits without correspondingly improving border security. His positions on Israel are inferior to the more qualified Republican candidates.

  1. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_democratic_presidential_nomination-3824.html (retrieved on December 20, 2015)
  2. Goodman, Alana, “O’Malley, ‘Both Sides’ to Blame for Bloodshed in Israel,” Washington Free Beacon, (October 26, 2015), http://freebeacon.com/national-security/omalley-both-sides-to-blame-for-bloodshed-in-israel/
  3. Russell, Jason, “From the ‘rain tax’ to the ‘flush tax’: 40 times Martin O’Malley raised taxes,” Washington Examiner, (May 30, 2015), http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/from-the-rain-tax-to-the-flush-tax-40-times-martin-omalley-raised-taxes/article/2565266

Resources and Materials:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Martin_O%60Malley.htm