Victory SpeechREMARKS Baltimore, Maryland God bless you, Maryland. And for the working families of Maryland, it is time to move Maryland forward again… don’t you think? We are going to make our government work again, right? We are going to make college education more affordable again, right? We are going to expand health care coverage for more Marylanders, right? And when necessary, and as required by law, we are going to stand up to powerful wealthy special interests whenever they try to profiteer on the backs of the working people of Maryland. We run for Maryland, we serve Maryland. I cannot thank all of you enough. I want to begin by thanking a man of extraordinary courage… extraordinary commitment… a man who has come to my side in the middle of a very important battle and has helped us finish this race with the same courage, and the valor that led him to serve us in Iraq for a year. Anthony Brown and Pat, thank you and the Brown family. I also want to thank two people that are roll models to me, and to Katie, in public service and also in terms of their love of family… Joe and Barbara Curran, two of the nicest people that Maryland ever produced. I also want to thank a young woman over here, my mom, Barbara O’Malley. You know, I was so very blessed to be raised by loving parents who care about this country, who raised their children to care about this country, who raised their kids in a house that taught them that public service was a noble calling. And there’s a man that can’t be with us tonight, and that is my dad, Tom O’Malley, who said to us… “You know what? Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, but always you try… and that is what God demands of us.� Dad, tonight we tried and tonight we won. Oh my goodness… are you all having a good time here tonight, by the way? I tell you, there are so many people that I need to thank. You know, this has been a long hard road, hasn’t it? To Mayor Tommy D’Alessandro, the brother of the next Speaker of the House of the United States of America… a Baltimore woman. Governor Harry Hughes… Governor Harry Hughes… a beacon, and a tremendous man of wisdom and kindness and compassion. I really also want to thank Paul Sarbanes for all that he and Barbara Mikulski have done for this campaign. And I especially want to thank the young people of Maryland… the young people of Maryland. The young people of Maryland… Black and White and Latino and Asian. The people who reflect the fact and the timeless truth that in this land of the free and the home of the brave and e plurbis unum… multi-culturalism is not bunk. Multi-culturalism is America. You know, to all of you who have been the Volunteer Army… the inheritors… the inheritors of the legacy of the Old Line State… you have become the new line that defends Maryland. And to all of your generals… to Josh White… to Mike Cryor… to Peter O’Malley… to Jeanne Hitchcock… to Steve Kearney, Michael Enright, and especially Party Chair Terry Lierman… thank you for the best coordinated campaign Maryland has ever had, Terry. Thank you. You know, because of your compassion, because of your strength, because of your intelligence and fairness… you have always sent good people to represent us in Washington. Well guess what… just like 1814, they doubled back to protect Baltimore and I have to thank Dutch Ruppersberger and Elijah Cummings. And to all of the countless members who are up here on this stage, I tell you Johnny Olszewski delivered the East End of Baltimore… Johnny O… Johnny Olszewski delivered the East Side of Baltimore, but do you remember the two great County Executives that we had on television… you know, people who are old-fashioned enough to believe that government can actually work… County Executive Jim Robey and County Executive Jim Smith? Well, from what we’ve been seeing on the television set, it looks like Jim Robey’s going to continue to serve as a State Senator from Howard County… Jim Smith is going to get re-elected overwhelmingly in Baltimore County… and in the next Governor’s Office of the State of Maryland… a Governor’s Office that understands that the only way we make progress is by working together… we are going to have a red phone for Jim Smith in Baltimore County in the next Governor’s Office. My friends… my friends, the great Mayor Terrance McSweeney once said that… “The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or of vengeance, but of endurance. It is not those that can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most who will conquer.� Over these last six years, we in Maryland have suffered a great deal… we Americans have suffered a great deal… but tonight, to paraphrase the great American poet, Maya Angelou, we rise… still we rise… we rise again. And we thank our friends Doug Duncan, Jack Johnson, Ike Legget, Al Wynn, Chris Van Hollen and all who have helped us to rise again. We thank the men and women of every union in Baltimore, including SEIU, AFSCME, the Operating Engineers… who have helped us to rise again. We thank Al Gore, President Clinton and Barack Obama, who have helped us rise again. And we thank all of you, because together we have shown… we have proven… that great things are not accomplished by power. They are accomplished by perserverance, by belief in one another and faith in our ideals. There was not an ounce of quit in anyone in this campaign. Anthony and I are incredibly humbled by what all of you have done to get our State moving forward again. And we want to be very, very clear… as we ran this campaign, campaigning in all 23 counties and the City of Baltimore… which yes, is still a part of the State of Maryland… our message in every part of Maryland is that we are one Maryland… that we progress as a people not on the weakness, but on the strength of our neighbors. And we promise you, that is the sort of leadership we will give to you. We are going to recruit people… men and women, regardless of Party… who are competent, who are professional, who can make your government work for you. That is the sort of government that we are going to give to the people of Maryland, and the people of Maryland deserve no less. I’m still waiting for the call, by the way. You know what, my friends? We have been through a bad jag of four years of the politics of division and fear. Tonight, Maryland moves forward again. Anthony and I are going to run an honest government. We are going to run a government that serves the people. And we are so proud of all of you for electing to that government two tremendous individuals… one of them is our next Comptroller, Peter Franchot… and the other is the man that is going to fill the big shoes of Joe Curran, none other than Doug Gansler, our next Attorney General. And filling the tremendous shoes vacated by Ben Cardin… who’s walking on in to the US Senate… we are going to have a name that is synonymous with progress, with fairness, with opportunity, with integrity and commitment to public service, John Sarbanes, as our next Congressman. My friends, Anthony and I are going to give to you a government that is honest. We are going to be careful with your tax dollars. We are going to make your government work for you. We are going to listen to different points of view in a Maryland where compromise is not a dirty word, but an American value. And we need each and every one of you. You know, this campaign’s been tough, but governing is going to be even tougher… governing is going to be even tougher. We have to pull ourselves together and move forward to strengthen and grow our middle class, to improve public safety and public education in every part of our state, and to expand the opportunities for learning, for earning, for enjoying the health of the people we love… as well as the environment that we love… to more people rather than fewer. These are our goals. You know, our nickname as a state… the Old Line State… comes from 1776 when Washington’s Army was this close to annihilation in New York… were it not for 400 Marylanders… your neighbors and mine, albeit of a different point in time… some of them free black citizens of a still, as of yet, very imperfect country. And rather than running away from the overwhelming odds that were facing them, they ran into the breech and into the challenge. And there is a plaque not far from the mass graves of the 256 of them who died that day… and it reads simply this… “In honor of the Maryland 400, who on this battlefield on August 27, 1776, saved the American Army.� Now get this… they fought under a flag that had thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, but the stars… twelve of them were arranged in a circle, and there was one star in the center. And that star was us. That star still is us. That middle state… that central state… that state where compromise was not a dirty word, but an American virtue and a value, where compromise was necessary to bring together a diverse people who understood that their diversity is their strength. These are our values as Marylanders. The values that the Maryland 400 defended are the same values that all of you, as the new line, defended over these last few months. They are the values that make us proud to be Marylanders and proud to be Americans. Respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals, mercy, compassion, love. These are things that unite us. These are the things that make a stronger Maryland. These are the things that will move all of Maryland forward. These are the things that will make a better future for all of the working people of Maryland, including the people of Baltimore, the greatest City in America. Thank you all very much. |
 
 
Announcement Day A brief video documentary of O’Malley’s Announcement Day.
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