But there is an alternative. Rather than rallying around someone who can't seem to elude perpetual media scrutiny, the person all Democrats should pay close attention to is former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley who is poised to officially join the race Saturday. The former Baltimore mayor and two-term governor offers a genuine alternative to the status quo within Washington and a real threat to any GOP challenger — especially Jeb Bush.

Mr. O'Malley, unlike Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, isn't linked to perpetual scandal and criticism, nor is he beholden to foreign donors, investment banks or a family surname. He rightfully stated that the presidency isn't "some crown to be passed between two families" and compared to Ms. Clinton, Mr. O'Malley offers a genuinely progressive outlook on American politics. When both candidates are analyzed, it's apparent that one caters to poll-driven centrism while the other is far more confident in a progressive vision for America.

While Ms. Clinton voted for the invasion of Iraq, Mr. O'Malley has been a longtime critic of the Iraq War. As governor, Mr. O'Malley sponsored and signed a same-sex marriage bill when Hillary Clinton was overtly against gay marriage. He also signed a marijuana decriminalization bill, while Ms. Clinton has said she was against the decriminalization of marijuana. Martin O'Malley wants to bring back Glass-Steagall, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership a "bad trade deal," and urged the Senate in 2014 to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, once referred to TPP as "the gold standard in trade agreements," and she still hasn't taken a stance on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Providing a Living Wage
During the 2014 Legislative Session, Governor O'Malley and Lt. Governor Brown led the successful campaign to raise Maryland's minimum wage to $10.10. Hundreds of thousands of Maryland workers will receive a raise, injecting money into the economy and creating good-paying, family-supporting jobs.

According to the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States, Maryland is one of the Top Three states for upward economic mobility based on a worker’s ability to move up the corporate ladder.

Access to Higher Education
Since 2007-08, Maryland has done more than any other state in the nation to hold down the cost of college. This year, the University System of Maryland’s tuition increase is capped at 3%, including a freeze at Morgan State University and St. Mary’s College.

Strengthening Neighborhoods, Towns, & Local Economies
Maryland invests in smart growth by strengthening neighborhoods, towns, and local economies. Traditional programs like Main Street Maryland, Community Legacy, and Neighborhood BusinessWorks strive to strengthen the economic potential of our traditional main streets and neighborhoods.

Assistance to Needy Families
In order to support people and families confronting economic challenges, Maryland has committed resources to help those who were particularly affected by the foreclosure crisis. Maryland has reformed state laws, provided counseling and financial assistance, and has become a national leader in foreclosure prevention. Maryland continues to provide leadership and creative responses to the foreclosure crisis with expanded counseling services and outreach efforts.

In an interview with The Irish Times, the Irish-American former Baltimore mayor and former Maryland governor, who is due to announce his candidacy on Saturday, said he had a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the frontrunner.

“But an election, especially an election as important as the election of the next president of the United States, is not about what’s good for the Clintons or for that matter what’s good for the O’Malleys. It’s about what’s good for our country,” he said.

Mr O’Malley (52) is regarded as having positioned himself to the left of Ms Clinton (67) in order to appeal to the Democrats’ progressive base. “I don’t see myself as to the left or right of the other candidates in the party. I see myself as forward of them. I’m younger than they are. I therefore arrive at some conclusions on important issues in advance of the other candidates.”

Asked about the widely held belief, backed up by polling, that Ms Clinton’s candidacy is unstoppable within the Democratic Party, he said: “Every year there’s an unstoppable candidacy. Inevitable frontrunners are inevitable right up until they’re no longer inevitable.”

He said the Republican Party tended to “retread old names” while the Democrats tended to look to the future more. “In our party, there usually emerges a choice between the candidate that everybody knows and the new candidate of a new generation that none of us has ever really heard of much,” he said.

Mr. O’Malley, formerly the governor of Maryland, is expected to announce his presidential bid on Saturday and is viewed as an upstart opponent to Ms. Clinton, the establishment choice who is widely expected to be the party’s nominee. Ms. Clinton also faces a challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats and identifies as a socialist, about whom Mr. de Blasio has spoken warmly. (snip)

The mayor made waves by withholding his endorsement from Ms. Clinton, whose 2000 Senate campaign he ran. He has insisted he simply wants to hear her vision, and the vision of other candidates, on income inequality. Some have posited that withholding the endorsement and delivering his stamp of approval later on will be better political theater for both Mr. de Blasio and Ms. Clinton. Despite his hedging on endorsing Ms. Clinton, Mr. de Blasio’s seeming disinterest in the man set to be perhaps her best-equipped rival may bolster the theory that the mayor endorsing Ms. Clinton is simply a fait accompli. (snip)

Other city elected officials have been more open to Mr. O’Malley’s pitch—Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito met last fall with Mr. O’Malley, the New York Times recently reported.

While the mayor professed to know little about Mr. O’Malley, the former governor is getting a boost from some former de Blasio boosters, including Lis Smith, Mr. de Blasio’s general election campaign and transition spokeswoman. He’s also being advised by Bill Hyers, Mr. de Blasio’s campaign manager.

Mr. de Blasio said he’d like to hear Mr. O’Malley’s thoughts on income inequality, an issue Mr. de Blasio has taken on the road in recent months. Mr. O’Malley has recently made a point of vehemently opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact backed by President Barack Obama and panned by liberals and progressives—including the group Mr. de Blasio convened in Washington this month. Ms. Clinton, meanwhile, has been hedged on the trade deal.

O’Malley clearly believes income inequality and declining wages will be the defining issues of the 2016 campaign, and he’s adopted a platform that echoes a lot of Warren’s so-called 8-point plan to grow the middle class, distilled from her “Raising Wages” speech to the AFL-CIO in January.

In addition to backing the restoration of Glass Steagall and hiking the capital gains tax, he supports a higher minimum wage and overtime-pay threshold, greater collective bargaining rights, expanding Social Security and more infrastructure spending. He can still sound like a technocrat at times, telling me he doesn’t like to talk about things in terms of “left and right” but “forward and backward.”

In the closing hours of its session last week, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2013 and Governor O’Malley is expected to sign it soon. Even so, the changes do not take effect until after the 2014 state elections.

The final version of the bill is largely unchanged from the initial House-passed version we described previously, meaning that after the 2014 elections, contribution limits will increase, certain business entities will be limited in their giving, pay-to-play reporting will be simplified, and enforcement strengthened.

Last Thursday, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a new campaign finance law. Among other provisions, the law requires disclosure of contributors to independent expenditure and electioneering groups. The new law, which generally goes into effect in 2015, will require disclosure of the identity of any person contributing $6,000 or more to independent expenditures or independent electioneering groups that are involved in Maryland state elections. The new law also restricts contributions by limited liability companies and other non-corporate business entities, and it raises contribution limits from $4,000 to a single candidate in a cycle to $6,000 and from $10,000 to all candidates in a cycle to $24,000.

O'Malley, 52, announced Tuesday on two social media platforms, Snapchat and Twitter, that he would make a "special announcement" on May 30 in Baltimore -- when he is widely believed to formally enter the 2016 contest. Clinton, the former Secretary of State and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are already in the race for the Democratic nomination.

The former Maryland governor will release a new video Wednesday continuing to tease the May 30 event, according to an early version obtained by CNN. O'Malley's campaign is likely to produce several more similar videos leading up to the announcement.

"I think the way we're approaching things here, making him accessible, doing impromptu concerts at Irish bars, using non-traditional forms of communicating, and yes employing some humor hints at our general approach of running a fresher and less canned campaign," said the confidante.

So why have political pundits come to the consensus that Elizabeth Warren is the only one who could give Hillary a run for her money in the Democratic primary? Perhaps it is O’Malley’s lack of name recognition. He is currently polling at around 0.3 percent in the Iowa Democratic Caucus, compared to Clinton’s 58 percent, and Warren’s 17 percent. But that number is increasing, and O’Malley received a warm reception in recent trips to New Hampshire and Iowa.

Perhaps it is because O’Malley is not a woman. While a first female president would certainly be a symbolic victory for women, it is unclear that a Clinton presidency would produce many tangible benefits for women. In fact, in terms of policy, O’Malley seems to have proposed just as many, if not more, policies to help women as Clinton has. At the Harvard Institute of Politics, O’Malley declared, “We must recognize that policies that are good for women and families, like paid leave and safe and affordable child care, are also good for our national economy, and for economic growth, because when women succeed, our American economy also succeeds.”

O’Malley also proclaimed his support for a federal $15 minimum wage, which would give a much-needed raise to the 3 million Americans who work at or below minimum wage, 62 percent of whom are women. Clinton has voiced her support for fast food workers striking for a higher wage, but she has yet to establish how much of an increase in the minimum wage she would support. Despite his gender, O’Malley could be the candidate that would make the biggest difference for women.