After his father-in-law, Maryland?s attorney general, had made his big retirement announcement and the crowd had drifted away, the mayor of Baltimore sat by himself in a corner of the small holding room where the family had assembled.
“It?s kind of a bittersweet thing,” said a clearly subdued Martin O?Malley. “You?re grateful” to have had Attorney General Joseph Curran?s public service but also sad to be losing that service, he said.
“He?s a great man,” said O?Malley, who had learned of Curran?s decision Sunday morning. The attorney general and his wife came to the O?Malley household for dinner Sunday night.
“The kids have a tremendous man to look up to as their grandfather,” O?Malley said. “He?s never, ever lost his optimism about human nature.”
Both the mayor and the attorney general denied that there would have been any conflict of interest if O?Malley were elected governor and Curran had continued to serve as attorney general.
“He?s always done what he believes is the right thing to do,” O?Malley said.
Curran said, “Martin?s a man of impeccable integrity.”
District Court Judge Catherine Curran O?Malley, the mayor?s wife and one of Curran?s five children, said, The family is “very proud” of her father.
She said they were happy that he was retiring after a long political career, but “this is not the last we?ll hear of Joe Curran.”
Curran has promised to campaign for O?Malley.
As a state judge, Catherine O?Malley is restricted from many political activities. “I?m just a personal adviser to Martin O?Malley,” she said.
“He hears from me on a daily basis.”
