Throughout the USA, only a handful of state attorneys common are ladies, and fewer nonetheless are ladies who’ve served on the bench, not to mention for the span of time Ms. O’Malley has. She has earned reward as balanced, compassionate, energetic and hands-on. For years she went the additional mile, volunteering weekly to work one-on-one with preteen youngsters skipping faculty in Baltimore. She was the one one of many metropolis’s district courtroom judges to take action.

There was nothing remotely political about that work. Actually, as a decide she was barred from partisan exercise altogether. But she is not any stranger to politics, having grown up because the daughter of a distinguished Democratic politician, former legal professional common J. Joseph Curran Jr., and spent a bit of her grownup life because the spouse of one other, Martin O’Malley (D), who was governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore.

She confirmed backbone as an advocate for state laws legalizing same-sex marriage, a trigger she embraced, many believed, extra passionately than her husband did initially. The measure handed and was narrowly authorized at referendum by Maryland voters, in 2012, three years earlier than the Supreme Courtroom issued a blanket ruling allowing same-sex {couples} to marry.

Within the job of legal professional common, held for the previous eight years by Democrat Brian E. Frosh, who’s retiring, Ms. O’Malley would pursue an unusually detailed, aggressive and wide-ranging agenda. As supervisor of an workplace whose employees consists of 450 attorneys, she would deal with surging violent crime, notably in Baltimore, whose per capita murder charge is second solely to St. Louis.

Her platform advocates robust measures to grapple with gun crimes, together with by pushing to allow victims of gun violence to sue firearms producers. She has smart proposals to prioritize environmental safety, by going after polluters and guaranteeing the state hits its targets for lowering dangerous emissions. Constructing on her expertise as the highest financial crimes prosecutor in Baltimore, earlier than she turned a decide, she has pledged investigations of coronavirus testing companies which have defrauded Marylanders and companies that defraud the aged.

Ms. O’Malley’s major opponent, Rep. Anthony G. Brown, who will go away Congress after six years, is an trustworthy, clever public servant; he would additionally make an ready legal professional common. However his expertise, which incorporates eight years as lieutenant governor, is that of a traditional politician. Ms. O’Malley, having been in judicial trenches, would convey to the function a broader, brisker, people-oriented view.