Robert Leroy Ehrlich Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 60th governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. A Republican, Ehrlich represented Maryland's 10th legislative district in the House of Delegates from 1987 to 1995 and Maryland's 2nd Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.
Martin Joseph O'Malley is an American politician who served as the 17th commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 61st governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015 and the 48th mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007.
The Wire is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered on June 2, 2002, and ended on March 9, 2008, comprising 60 episodes over five seasons. The idea for the show started out as a police drama loosely based on the experiences of Simon's writing partner Ed Burns, a former homicide detective and public school teacher.
The 2006 Maryland gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican governor Bob Ehrlich ran for a second term, but was defeated by the Democratic nominee, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. Ehrlich was the only incumbent governor from either party to lose a general election in the 2006 midterms.
Kurt Lidell Schmoke is an American politician and lawyer who was the 47th mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1987 to 1999, the first African American to be elected to the post. He is a former dean of the Howard University School of Law and, on July 7, 2014, he was appointed as president of the University of Baltimore.
The Dawson family, a family of seven, were all murdered in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., on October 16, 2002. After Angela had repeatedly alerted police to drug dealing, assault, and other crimes in her East Baltimore neighborhood of Oliver, the entire family was killed when their home was firebombed. A neighbor, Darrell L. Brooks— pleaded guilty to the crimes and was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. At the time of the attack, Brooks was on probation but had been left unsupervised.
The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering 80.9 square miles (210 km2) of land and 11.1 square miles (29 km2) of waterways. The department is sometimes referred to as the Baltimore City Police Department to distinguish it from the Baltimore County Police Department.
"Mission Accomplished" is the 12th and final episode of the third season of the HBO original series The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Ernest Dickerson. It originally aired on December 19, 2004.
Thomas J. "Tommy" Carcetti is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Aidan Gillen. Carcetti is an ambitious and venal Baltimore politician who begins the series with a seat on the city council.
The 2007 Baltimore mayoral election was held on November 6, 2007. Because Baltimore's electorate is overwhelmingly Democratic, Sheila Dixon's victory in the Democratic primary on September 11 all but assured her of victory in the general election; she defeated Republican candidate Elbert Henderson in the general election by an overwhelming majority. Dixon, who as president of the Baltimore City Council became mayor in January 2007 when Martin O'Malley resigned to become Governor of Maryland, was the first woman to be elected to the office.
The following are politicians, family members, and assistants administrating the politics of Baltimore on The Wire.
Jill Priscilla Carter is an American politician and attorney who was a member of the Maryland Senate from 2018 to 2025, representing the 41st district in Baltimore. She previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2003 until her resignation in 2017.
The 2010 Maryland gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2010. The date included the election of the governor, lieutenant governor, and all members of the Maryland General Assembly. Incumbent Democratic governor Martin O'Malley and lieutenant governor Anthony Brown won re-election to a second term in office, defeating Republican former governor Bob Ehrlich and his running mate Mary Kane.
The 2008 congressional elections in Maryland were held on November 4, 2008, to determine who would represent the state of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives, coinciding with the presidential election. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected serve in the 111th Congress from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011.
Kevin Clark is a former commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, who held the position from early 2003 until November 2004. A former NYPD officer, Clark's term as police commissioner was strained with both the mayor and police department as Clark was involved in domestic issues and an unpopular turnover of veteran officers such as former Major Gary D'Addario. He was fired by then-mayor Martin O'Malley, resulting in a lawsuit in which he sought $120 million in damages and fought to get back his job. O'Malley's justification for the firing had been that these accusations were distracting to his duties as a commissioner.
On November 2, 1999, the city of Baltimore, Maryland, elected a new mayor, the 47th in the city's history. Primary elections were held to determine the nominees for the Democratic Party and Republican Party on September 14. Incumbent mayor Kurt Schmoke, a Democrat, opted not to run for reelection. Martin O'Malley, a member of the Baltimore City Council, won the election to succeed Schmoke.
Kenneth A. "Kenny" Jackson is an American businessman in Baltimore, Maryland, with alleged past connections to the illegal drug trade in the city. He is alleged to be one of the Baltimore figures whose stories are dramatized in the HBO series The Wire, but his actual influence upon the show is disputed. The connections among drug trafficking, legitimate businesses, and political donations depicted in The Wire reflect aspects of Jackson's life.
The 2014 Maryland gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Maryland. Incumbent Democratic governor Martin O'Malley was term-limited and could not run for re-election to a third consecutive term.
The American city of Baltimore, Maryland has struggled with crime rates above national averages. Violent crime spiked after the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015, which touched off riots and an increase in murders. The city recorded 348 killings in 2019, a number second only to the number recorded in 1993 when the population was nearly 125,000 higher. In recent years the city has seen a sharp decrease in homicides, recording 201 in 2024, the lowest number since 2011.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Martin O'Malley, the 61st Governor of Maryland, was formally launched on May 30, 2015, as Governor O'Malley announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. On February 1, 2016, he suspended his campaign after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.
