History Characters / TheWireCityHall

-->''Fool, what do you think? That we know anything about who gives money? That we give a damn about who they are or what they want? We have no way of running down them or their stories. We don't care. We just cash the damn cheques, count the votes and move on.''

-->''Yummy, my first bowl of shit.''

--> ''Next year? For some things, that's a long time to wait.''

-->''The people running your campaign are professionals, Tommy. Don't try this shit at home.''

-->''Clay, it is what it is.''

-->''Kids don't vote.''

-->'''Rawls:''' Mayor's office already called twice, worried sick about the man. That's a whole lotta campaign contributions sitting on the back of that ambo.

-->'' I hear you took a swipe at Hizzoner the other day on that witness murder. You keep on it, Councilman. A little smack here and there does this administration a world of good.''

-->''He's taking on a two-term incumbent. It's all gonna be ugly from here.''

-->''Thought I'd be the education mayor.''

->'''Played by''': Isaiah Whitlock Jr.

->'''Played by''': Glynn Turman

* KarmaHoudini: Not only he escapes punishment, [[TheBadGuyWins his position is reinforced]] after he's acquitted.

* {{Rainmaking}}: Solicits bribes from Stringer, promising to advance his real estate investments, but doesn't actually do anything once he gets them.

** She becomes the contrarian to Cedric Daniels. She argues that if he doesn't come into the fold, she will sling as much mud as she can to him; the mud, she obtained from Burrell as it turns out. Not for long, though. He refuses to remain Commissioner because with Campbell holding his leash there's nothing Daniels can go to improve the BCPD anyway.

** She becomes the contrarian to Cedric Daniels. She argues that if he doesn't come into the fold, she will sling as much mud as she can to him; the mud, she obtained from Burrell as it turns out. Not for long, though. He refuses to remain Commissioner because with Campbell holding his leash there's nothing Daniels can go to improve the BCPD anyway.

->'''Played by''': Reg E. Cathey

* CommanderContrarian: To Carcetti in the worst, most politically cynical way possible. When Carcetti is looking for advice about what to do regarding the school budget and whether he should take the governor's money and looks around the room for advice, Campbell flat out tells him not to look to her for advice, [[http://youtu.be/6EjbcJ7YvTw?t=38s because regardless of what he does she'll use it to attack him in the next election]] when she plans to run against him. It's something of a running theme with the two.
** She becomes the contrarian to Cedric Daniels. She argues that if he doesn't come into the fold, she will sling as much mud as she can to him; the mud, she obtained from Burrell as it turns out.

* TwoferTokenMinority: Arguably being black doesn't really count as the show has so many black characters, but Watkins is also a wheelchair user.

A highly competent and ''extremely'' ambitious Democratic Baltimore city councilman, Carcetti fondly dreams of supplanting Mayor Royce and cleaning up Baltimore. Throughout Season 3, despite Royce apparently having a solid grip on the office of Mayor and being in a position to easily defeat would-be rivals, Carcetti nonetheless comes to believe that Royce is vulnerable and slowly begins putting together an operation that will allow him to challenge Royce. Carcetti gets his chance as the rise in violent crime, the killing of a key state's witness due to the lack of proper witness protection, and the political storm that is Hamsterdam all come together at once and undermine Royce's position.

* DefrostingIceQueen: Averted. After finding her too distant and cold, [=McNulty=] does an effort to connect with her, but they live in two separate worlds. When he thinks she's finally warming up to him he realizes that she's pumping him for information on Major Colvin and Hamsterdam, and promptly storms away.

In Season 4 a number of factors work in Carcetti's favor and he pulls off an upset, defeating Royce in the election and becoming mayor. Once in office, with his advisors Norman and Steintorf, he seeks out people he can trust within city government, particularly the police force so he can accomplish his goals for reform. After some time in office, however, Carcetti's grand ambitions come crashing to the ground when it's revealed that financial legerdemain had been used to to hide a massive deficit in the school budget. The best chance for fixing this hole in the city's budget is to accept help from the Republican governor of Maryland, but the governor (who sees Carcetti as a potential rival) humiliates Carcetti and attaches conditions to his help that would crush Carcetti's chances of challenging him the way Carcetti challenged Royce. Carcetti, already feeling the heat from the next mayoral election, (where he he won't have factors working in his favor as he did against Royce) refuses to accept the governor's bailout and takes the money mostly from the police force instead, which makes his vision for a reformed and better police force impossible.

* InformedAttractiveness: Courtesy of Herc: "Council President's hot as balls!"

Season 5 sees Carcetti increasingly ground down by his attempts to run the city and morally compromised as he tries to deal with the various corrupt politicians and broken institutions around him. He is unable to fulfill most of the promises he made to his allies and constituents, but he does manages to capitalize on [=McNulty=]'s fake serial killer, and when he runs against the governor Carcetti uses the "serial killer" as a key issue, attacking his Republican opponent's positions on homelessness and the poor. At the end of the season he wins the governor's race, leaving behind the city with most of his goals unaccomplished and what good he has managed to do is in a position to easily to be reversed by his highly corrupt successor to the job of mayor, Nerese Campbell.

In Season 4 a number of factors work in Carcetti's favor and he pulls off an upset, defeating Royce in the election and becoming mayor. Once in office, with his advisors Norman and Steintorf, he seeks out people he can trust within city government, particularly the police force so he can accomplish his goals for reform. After some time in office, however, Carcetti's grand ambitions come crashing to the ground when it's revealed that financial legerdemain had been used to to hide a massive deficit in the school budget. The best chance for fixing this hole in the city's budget is to accept help from the Republican governor of Maryland, but the governor (who sees Carcetti as a potential rival) humiliates Carcetti and attaches conditions to his help that would crush Carcetti's chances of challenging him the way Carcetti challenged Royce. Carcetti, already feeling the heat from the next mayoral election, (where he he won't have factors working in his favor as he did against Royce) refuses to accept the governor's bailout and instead takes the money from the police force instead.

Carcetti is an ambitious Baltimore city councilman, who dreams of supplanting the current mayor, Royce, and cleaning up Baltimore. He gets his chance with the rise in violent crime, and when a key state's witness is killed due to the lack of proper witness protection. When Hamsterdam is exposed, he starts campaigning in earnest, pulling off an upset and becoming mayor. Once in office, with his advisors Norman and Steintorf, he seeks out people he can trust within city government, particularly the police force. Promising a reduction in crime, he is undermined by the revelation that financial legerdemain had been used to to hide a massive deficit in the school budget. Deciding not to seek the Maryland governor's help in bailing out the schools, he takes the money from the police force instead. He is unable to fulfill most of the promises he made to his allies and constituents, but manages to get elected governor by attacking his Republican opponent's positions on homeless and the poor, which works as a high-profile issue due to [=McNulty=]'s fake serial killer.

* DefrostingIceQueen: Averted. After finding her too distant and cold, [=McNulty=] does an effort to connect with her, but they live in two separate worlds. When he thinks she's finally warming up to him he realizes that she's pumping him for information on Major Colvin and Hamsterdam, and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome promptly storms away]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Based on the very shady Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon, city council president when while O'Malley was Mayor and his successor as Mayor when he became Governor.[[note]]Dixon eventually resigned in disgrace after being tried for and convicted of fraudulent misdemeanor misappropriation of city funds (and you know what this show keeps reminding us about Baltimore juries...).[[/note]]

* InformedAttractiveness: "Council President's hot as balls!"

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Starts off as an idealistic crusader determined to clean up Baltimore's corruption. A year in the mayor's office molds him into a self-serving politician who's forgotten everything he that stood for.

-->''I told you I saw only the one. I know he was black. Big, I thought. With a large weapon.''

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Starts off as an idealistic crusader determined to clean up Baltimore's corruption. A year in the mayor's seat gradually molds him into just another self-serving politician who's forgotten everything he stood for.

** [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Or]] it could be just a strategy to make him seem [[CloserToEarth more human]] to the public by misspelling on purpose.