The mayor says battling the city's social ills remains his top priority, though. Mr. O'Malley is wise to focus on the drug problem, according to Donald P. Hutchinson, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the city's largest business group. The drug issue dims all of our other achievements. The popular Mr. O'Malley is key to getting the state and federal money needed to solve the city's infrastructure and social problems, according to the Baltimore business leaders and politicians who lavish praise on the mayor. Mr. Cardin compared the mayor to the Ravens, its championship professional football team, which is known for its solid defensive line.
Voters seem to agree.
A poll in January found Mr. O'Malley's job approval rating in Baltimore is 88 percent. Political wags say Mr. O'Malley, who previously served as a city councilman and an assistant state's attorney, would be a strong candidate for Maryland governor next year - a prospect that makes the city's business leaders uneasy. David S. Cordish, a Baltimore developer who is planning an Inner Harbor complex with a comedy club, a piano bar, a steak house and other restaurants, hopes Mr. O'Malley will stick around City Hall for at least a few more years. The mayor won't say whether he has gubernatorial ambitions in 2002.