At Monday’s bill signing of special session legislation, there were big grins, several rounds of applause and congratulatory photos. But in exclusive interviews with The Examiner and broadcast reporters Tuesday, Gov. Martin O’Malley emphasized that the victory celebration, which carried over into the governor’s mansion, was not a certainty just a few days before.

“Success was not inevitable,” O’Malley told WBAL radio’s Scott Wycoff. “It could have gone very, very poorly. Three days before the close, there were many of us who thought that we had given it our best shot but this wasn’t going to happen.”

In an earlier interview with The Examiner, the governor said he had not expected the difficulty of achieving consensus, especially within his own Democratic Party. “Another thing that surprised me is how extreme and unshakable perceptions can be, even within a party that prides itself on its diversity and plurality and ability to accommodate differences,” O’Malley said.

Without the support of a handful of Republicans in both House and Senate, the governor’s proposed constitutional referendum on slot machine gambling and the detailed bill to implement it would have gone down to defeat, despite heavy Democratic majorities in both houses. The package raising the sales, income, car, cigarette and corporate taxes passed the Senate by just one vote. Many Democrats opposed it in both House and Senate.

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“My first choice would not have been to send it to referendum,” O’Malley said on WBAL. He does plan to work for its passage, but “I suspect I will be spending a lot more time campaigning for Hillary Clinton for president.”

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com