Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has been close, both personally and politically, to his police commissioner, Edward T. Norris.
The former New York City police commander was the personification of O'Malley's central campaign pledge: to bring zero-tolerance-style law enforcement to one of the most violent cities in America.
The mayor tried yesterday to put the best face on Norris' departure, saying that he's not angry and that he wishes his friend well in his new job, as state police superintendent.
But some in City Hall and elsewhere said that O'Malley - despite putting up a brave front - was hurt by the departure personally and perhaps damaged as a future candidate.
Although O'Malley knew that Norris had been shopping around for jobs - as O'Malley did, when he almost ran for governor - the mayor campaigned hard to persuade Norris to stay, and at times stuck his neck out for the commissioner.
During a time of fiscal hardship, O'Malley pushed through the city's Board of Estimates a $100,000 pension bonus that would kick in for Norris if he remained in office at least until Jan. 1, 2004.
O'Malley also gave such large salary increases to the Police Department - 25 percent to 33 percent per officer over three years - that other city employees grumbled.
After O'Malley won approval for Norris' pension bonus July 10, the police commissioner said, "I've promised the mayor I'm sticking around as long as he's sticking around."
Norris didn't keep his word, and he won't get the pension bonus.
The way O'Malley described it, apparently the commissioner didn't even tell the mayor face to face that he was leaving. O'Malley heard it first from news reporters.
"He has not told me that," O'Malley said of Norris' decision to leave, during a news conference yesterday. "Your sources are better than mine."
O'Malley faces a Democratic primary in as little as nine months with a Police Department under new command. Norris' departure underscores questions about whether the city can continue the improvements in its crime rates: 28 percent less violent crime since 1999, about 18 percent fewer homicides.
"It is not a good day as far as public safety is concerned in the city of Baltimore," said City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr.
Matthew A. Crenson, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist, said that by stealing O'Malley's most potent crime-fighting symbol, Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. might have damaged a possible O'Malley effort to challenge Ehrlich for governor.
"It's a coup for Ehrlich - one of O'Malley's chief administrative assets just went over to the other side, the Republicans," said Crenson. "Even if Norris is just a symbol for O'Malley, he's a pretty powerful symbol."
O'Malley said that the political capital he invested in Norris has not been wasted because the commissioner put in place a long-term crime-reduction strategy that will continue to work under new leadership.
"We said three years ago, it's about the plan, not about the man," said O'Malley. "We went from a department that was in last place, and for the last three years we've led the nation in the rate of violent-crime reduction."