The mayor’s support

lot of rhetoric. He was very specific. He would talk about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it.”

Ivey says he sees Walter Carter’s influence on Jill Carter when he reads her quotes in the newspaper.

Jill Carter, a state delegate for 14 years, led a legislative effort opposing the construction of a new youth jail in Baltimore and sponsored “Christopher’s Law,” which requires police to undergo more training on use and level of force, cultural diversity and lifesaving skills. The law is named for Christopher Brown, a 17-year-old student at Randallstown High School who was killed in an encounter with an off-duty Baltimore County police officer in 2012.

Carter was a vocal opponent of the mass arrests under the mayoral administration of Martin O’Malley, and sponsored “Phylicia’s Law,” which requires state officials to publish lists of missing children and oversee local search efforts. It was named for Phylicia Barnes, the North Carolina teen who disappeared while visiting Baltimore in 2010 and was later found dead.

Still, Carter says, she felt marginalized in Annapolis. Outside of the Legislative Black Caucus, she said, she was blocked from holding leadership positions and saw many of her proposals ignored.

“I thought I was going to have a chance to fight for real issues and make real change,” Carter said. “I was excited about it because it was a continuation of my dad’s struggle and our people’s struggle for justice, fairness and equality. But I was very surprised about how much resistance there was in the Maryland General Assembly on so many issues.”

Carter said her proposals to keep lead out of pipes in the city’s public schools, increase civilian oversight of police, expunge arrest records and increase school funding for Baltimore all met resistance.

Del. Curt Anderson, chairman of Baltimore’s House delegation, said he agrees that Carter’s ideas were frequently marginalized in Annapolis.

“It probably still stings a little bit,” he said, “but now she has a tremendous opportunity to do something on her own. She’s leadership now.”

The Office of Civil Rights was created in 2010 by then-Mayor Sheila Dixon. Carter is its third director, after Alvin O. Gillard and Kisha A. Brown.

Anderson said some of the commissions that report to the office have sat vacant or underutilized for too long.

“Jill Carter is someone who can infuse energy in these commissions,” Anderson said. “I’m looking for these boards to be more than paper tigers.”

Ivey said he thinks Carter can have a larger impact in her new role than she could as one of 141 members of the House of Delegates.

“In the General Assembly, you’re one of many,” he said. “But I think she has the same revolutionary attitude that her father had, and she has the same basic interests in helping people who are less fortunate.

“She brings to it the knowledge of what can be done to expand civil rights in ways that really affect people’s lives.”

Carter drew criticism from law enforcement in February for expressing empathy for an armed 18-year-old in West Baltimore who was shot and killed by police.

“I always think of how stupid & foolish I was at 18, 19, 20 ... 30,” Carter wrote on Facebook. “Whatever that child did or didn’t do, I’m fairly certain he was scared & 18 year old foolish & immature. Even if use of force protocol was followed, that doesn’t mean this child’s death was unavoidable. Another child is dead.”

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler posted a response blaming that thinking for the surging crime rate in Baltimore.

“After reading the comments of this city official and former legislator, I believe this is exactly why the bloodshed in Baltimore has

Pugh and Carter have struck some political observers as unlikely allies. Pugh received much backing for her mayoral run from the business and political establishment. Carter has positioned herself as an activist and outsider.

But Carter says Pugh has often used her establishment connections to accomplish goals the two share. She was the first elected official from Baltimore to endorse Pugh for mayor and campaigned with her frequently.

“She lent a certain hope to the issues no one usually cared about, like prisoners’ rights,” Carter said. “While many people characterized Senator Pugh as a favorite of the establishment, I felt that she did the right thing and utilized that favor to do some challenging things others wouldn’t do.”

Pugh says she selected Carter for the job because she “has the pulse of the community, especially with young people and on justice issues.”

Carter faces some major challenges right away.

From the time the Civilian Review Board was organized in 1999 until this year, not one police commissioner has ever heeded a board recommendation to impose tougher discipline on an officer, The Baltimore Sun has reported. The board can only recommend sanctions and hope that the commissioner agrees.

“I want to change the Civilian Review Board to a civilian oversight board,” Carter said. “That’s not radical. What’s radical is for civilians to have no say in the policing of their communities.”

The consent decree the city