Living room by living room, O’Malley marches on in New Hampshire.

[elleng]

8. Glad you appreciate him, flor-de-jasmim,

and to respond to your query, it's a good question and Governor O'Malley's experience is relevant as, even tho the Maryland legislature was majority Democrat, it was and is by no means FIRMLY democrat; he had MANY tussles with them, and lots of examples of having to 'deal' with an intransigent legislature.

An example, O'Malley called a special session of the General Assembly in November 2007 to close a projected budget deficit of $1.7 billion for 2008–2009.[45] In response, O'Malley and other lawmakers passed a tax plan that would raise total state tax collections by 14%.[46] In April 2009, O'Malley signed a traffic speed camera enforcement law, a bill which he supported and fought for in order to help raise revenue to try to balance the deficit facing Maryland. Through strong lobbying by O'Malley, the bill was revived after first having been defeated. After a second vote, the measure passed.[47] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_O%27Malley