BALTIMORE — Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Mayor Martin O’Malley resembled boxers before a fight yesterday as they curtly shook hands, then moved to opposite sides of the stage during an Inner Harbor gala.
The two likely opponents in the governor’s race next year headlined a ceremony to begin a two-day celebration of the 25th anniversary of Harborplace, the waterfront shopping and dining complex that revitalized downtown.
The event, held in the amphitheater near the USS Constellation, was to showcase Harborplace’s success, but the rivalry between the Republican governor and the Democratic mayor was clearly on most people’s mind.
“We’ve got them separated,” said an event coordinator with General Growth Properties, the owner of Harborplace, which staged the celebration.
Sure enough, Leslie R. Doggett, president and chief executive officer of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, was seated between Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. O’Malley.
The men typically remain mild mannered when together, saving the more powerful rhetoric for solo appearances at press conferences, a posture political insiders expect until late in the gubernatorial race.
“This is going to be a full-blown campaign season, and they will have to share the stage at city-state events,” said an O’Malley aide who asked not to be identified.
Still, each took advantage of the event to tout his contributions to Maryland’s $9 billion-a-year tourism industry, which this year got some unexpected recognition. The tourist-guide company Frommer’s ranked Baltimore among the top 10 summer destinations in the world.
“As you’ve heard, and I’m sure the mayor will tell you, our tourism is booming in Baltimore and around the state,” Mr. Ehrlich said. “I want to thank also our business development agency. … They’ve taken our marketing to a new level, marketing Baltimore, marketing the state.”
Mr. O’Malley cited continued progress in his city, such as the recent expansion of the Maryland Science Center and the recent openings of the Hippodrome Performing Arts Center and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.
“Together we carry the progress of the Inner Harbor,” he said. “We have carried it to other places. … Our city is coming back. We are turning heads all across the country. But in a real sense, in a physical sense, that renewal began 25 years ago as we started to build and started to rejuvenate from this place.”
Conspicuously absent from the event was state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, who as Baltimore mayor in the 1970s helped developer James W. Rouse make Harborplace the centerpiece of the downtown renaissance.
Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. O’Malley each paid tribute to Mr. Schaefer, who was vacationing in Ocean City and declined an invitation to attend the event.
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