THE DELICIOUS SUBPLOTS OF SEPTEMBER AWAIT

HE DOESN'T have Arnold's biceps (yet), but he's Baltimore's heavy lifter,
the star of our own election carnival.

Unstoppable on the road to re-election, Mayor Martin O'Malley has
nevertheless begun the sort of media campaign a candidate like Arnold
Schwarzenegger needs to prevail in California's recall brawl, an all-comers
affair complete with ladies' night and movie stars.

Mr. O'Malley's going to win big here in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary,
though he may not be any more daring than Mr. Schwarzenegger, whose campaign
so far has been marked by a refusal to answer questions. Maybe they have
some controversial ideas, but ideas are dangerous and don't count as much as
money and star power.

Wisely, Mayor O'Malley runs as if he had a real contest. He's on TV with
expensive commercials. His backers are on the radio with pro-O'Malley spots.
He's got a nifty, nimble slogan: "Because Better Isn't Good Enough." How do
you lay a glove on that one? It undermines the charge that he hasn't solved
all the problems he inherited. The murder rate is up, but he says violent
crime is down more than in many other U.S. cities. So, there's your
campaign.

It's not too consoling to find a secondary contest of comparable importance
just below the surface.

Mr. O'Malley's running hard to establish himself as a pre-emptive candidate
for governor of Maryland in 2006. He would like Montgomery County executive
Doug M. Duncan to smell the O'Malley coffee early so he doesn't get in the
way of fund raising. He would like to make Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. feel
and look like a one-termer.

He will spend big because he would like to win big. Nothing personal. He
wants to win by a margin, wider than any of his predecessors -- William
Donald Schaefer in particular.

Mr. Schaefer, as always, forces the issue. He'd like to see Mr. O'Malley
fail or stumble. The former mayor, now comptroller of Maryland, would like
to see Councilwoman Catherine E. Pugh win the race for City Council
president because Ms. Pugh is running against Mr. O'Malley's candidate, the
incumbent Council president, Sheila Dixon.

Mr. Schaefer would like to put political hurt on Mr. O'Malley because the
guitar-playing, rock star mayor fails to show Mr. Schaefer the proper
respect and, the former mayor thinks, Mr. O'Malley doesn't do the job with
sufficient devotion.

But Mr. O'Malley's three-year record is not so shabby. He's implemented a
new system of computerized accountability called CityStat, a computer-driven
picture of pothole-filling and accountability directed at improving public
works responses to Baltimore's needs.

He's been a national figure in the drive for properly equipped first
responders should there be more bouts of terrorism. He's started a program
to demolish 5,000 vacant houses and to restore the neighborhoods they are
blighting. He's gone after the drug dealers. He's been impatient and sharply
critical of those he finds guilty of poor performance or less than vigorous
support of the drug war.

As for ideas, a few more would be welcome. Given the intense effort to drive
drug sellers under ground -- which has not interrupted the parade of young
offenders into prison or death -- the conversation ought to be directed
toward some recognition that the drug war has been lost.

It won't happen because ideas like medicalization or decriminalization of
drugs is like declaring opposition to public education. You could ask former
mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, who dared to suggest a new approach and never
recovered politically. It's not the candidates' fault, entirely. The voters
and the pundits are waiting to pounce if they're naive enough to try
something risky.

But some are willing: "I would support medicalization of drugs," said 8th
District Council candidate Beatrice Hawkins: "It's my observation that drug
addiction starts out as a social event, and evolves into a dependency that
perpetuates sickness, crime and despair. With tighter policing and
heightened awareness for those that are trapped and really want out,
medicalization might be a way of escape back to the real world."

At the mayoral level, though, only a perennial candidate like A. Robert
Kaufman can espouse something other than strict law enforcement with
impunity. The discussion he urges should be at the very center of this
campaign.

It won't be. It's a political world in which muscle and money win out over
ideas.

C. Fraser Smith is an editorial writer and columnist for The Sun. His column
appears Sundays.