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Governor, Mayors to Join First Lady for President's Joint Address

September 8, 2011 at 12:13 PM ET by Kellyn Blossom
Summary: 
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will join First Lady Michelle Obama tonight to watch the President's Joint Address to Congress.

Tonight, during the President’s Joint Address to Congress, First Lady Michelle Obama will host 23 distinguished guests to watch the address with her in the First Lady’s box. The guests represent a wide variety of Americans from business owners, to veterans, to students, to construction workers and more. Among the guests will be three state and local elected leaders: Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley
Governor O’Malley is currently serving his second term as governor of Maryland. He also serves as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association and co-chair of the National Governor’s Association’s Special Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety. Prior to assuming the governorship, O’Malley served on the Baltimore City Council from 1991 to 1999, was appointed assistant state's attorney for the city of Baltimore, and then served as the Mayor of Baltimore for two terms. As Governor, O’Malley has focused on job creation by spurring innovation in all sectors of business, academia, and government.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory
A lifelong Cincinnatian, Mallory was elected mayor of Cincinnati in 2005 and won a second term in 2009.  In 1994, he succeeded his father, Majority Floor Leader William L. Mallory, Sr., in the Ohio House of Representatives.  Four years later, he moved to the Ohio Senate where he rose to the position of Assistant Minority Leader.  He is the first directly-elected black mayor of Cincinnati and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa was first elected mayor in 2005, then re-elected in 2009.  He is the current President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM).  In 2008, Mayor Villaraigosa passed a sales tax increase to invest in creating 166,000 transportation jobs in Los Angeles.  As President of USCM, he has led a bipartisan coalition of 165 mayors in support of an extension of the transportation reauthorization bill.