Mayor Martin O'Malley swept into a downtown hotel ballroom, answered the biggest question in state politics and whooshed right out again, leaving glittering chandeliers and bright TV lights for a dimly lit room on the sixth floor of City Hall.
After announcing he would not run for governor, Maryland's man of the hour spent the afternoon wonking out - crunching columns of city contract numbers projected on two big overhead screens.
"That's who we are and what we do," O'Malley said two days later, as he emerged from another meeting, this one analyzing Fire Department figures.
The distractions of the governor's race are finally behind O'Malley. So is half of his five-year term as mayor. On Friday, as he hit the midway point, O'Malley reflected on his first 2 1/2 years in office and looked ahead to the next.
He took pride in reductions in crime and improved efficiency in city services, saying those would continue to be top priorities in the second half of his term.
But O'Malley also said he's itching to reshape his job a bit - from repairman to pitchman, from a mayor who spends most of his time whipping city agencies into shape and battling crime, to one whose main job is selling Baltimore to prospective residents and businesses.
"I hope we get to a point where I'm able to spend less and less of my time fixing operations, and more and more of my time marketing the city and closing deals," he said.
"And I would consider that a very successful term if I can move us from a point where the reduction of crime and the reduction of drug addiction and all the ills that spin off from those two, that the reduction of those two has become so systematic, that I'm able to spend all my time recruiting new homeowners, new families and new businesses. I will have considered it four or five years of time very well spent. I'm not there yet."
All around this city of 635,000, friends and foes of the mayor have opinions on how O'Malley should spend the next 2 1/2 years - and beyond, should he seek and win a second term.
Many want crime-fighting to stay at the top of his agenda. Community groups call for more attention to improving neighborhoods and attracting grocery stores. A business group wants city health care costs trimmed. A social worker seeks more money for drug treatment. A radio talk show host says the mayor needs to build better relations with the city's African-Americans.
The mayor cannot let those competing demands distract him from his top priority, public safety, said former Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III.
"If you try to be a jack of all trades, you're dead," he said. "You're absolutely dead. ... If you move in five or six different directions, you can't accomplish anything. You've got to set your priorities, and he's done that with public safety. The rest will fall in line if he can get that under control."
O'Malley says his main focus remains fixed on fighting crime. The city had 300 murders a year for the decade before he took office. The number fell to 261 in 2000 and 256 last year. But this year, homicides have dropped only slightly.
"It's like pushing a rock up a hill," he said. "We didn't become the most deadly, addicted city overnight, and we're not going to become the safest city in America in one year or two years or three years. But that's the goal, and that's what we're driving toward."
Another O'Malley priority has been making agencies more efficient and accountable through his number-crunching CitiStat program. In that darkened sixth-floor room several days a week, agency heads see their performances translated into numbers and projected on those big screens for the mayor and top brass to scrutinize.
O'Malley spends several hours a week in CitiStat sessions, and he seems not to tire of the dry, numerical presentations.
That might seem odd for a politician known for his charisma. Much is made of O'Malley's looks, his biceps, his brash talk, his rock band. But star quality aside, the mayor is something of a government geek. At least that's an image he projected Friday as he showed off the powerful computer mapping tools and colorful graphics that CitiStat uses to chart municipal government progress.
"This is extended overtime utilization," he said enthusiastically, pointing out a screen for the Bureau of Solid Waste. "We only used to look at this stuff once a year."
CitiStat has saved the city millions - $16 million in overtime expenses alone, according to city figures.
Former Mayor William Donald Schaefer is skeptical of the high-tech approach to city supervision.
"They have a big map, and they come in and say, 'The place is cleaned up,'" said Schaefer, state comptroller and a former governor. "You don't do it by somebody else's eyes. You do it with your own eyes. ... Just really ride around the city and take a look at it. Go in some alleys. Go in some streets. Go in some houses that are falling down. I loved that. I'd go in a dirty alley."
But business groups applaud CitiStat and praise the mayor for outsourcing some city jobs. They want the mayor to do even more to cut costs.
At the same time, others are calling for O'Malley to spend more money on major problems such as drug addiction. Since the mayor has been in office, he has pushed hard to bring more drug-treatment dollars into Baltimore. He asked for an extra $9 million this year in Annapolis and managed to get an extra $7 million. Many want him to keep pushing.
"We have a waiting list of 1,600 people to get into our program. They have to wait for more than a year to get in," said Robert Butera, a social worker with Glenwood Life Center, a treatment program in the city. "We have to turn people away knowing they're going back to the street."
Among the many hopes for the remainder of the mayor's term is a request that would cost the city no money: WOLB talk radio host Larry Young wants the mayor to reach out more to the city's majority black population.
"I think the mayor, he would do well to try to broaden his base of individuals who can speak with him and share opinions," the former state senator said.
O'Malley defended his record on minority hiring. He noted that many top administration officials - including the directors of public works, finance and transportation - are African-Americans. They might not be as visible as the police chief, he said, but they are important.
Others want the mayor to concentrate on improving neighborhoods and housing. O'Malley announced an ambitious plan in January to take control of 5,000 vacant houses by the end of next year and make them available for redevelopment.
"We're taking ownership of Baltimore," he said.