Talk Elections

Will Maryland eventually trend "purple"?

I was talking to someone the other day and they said that Maryland is and will trend more towards Republicans in future.  The argued that ther increase in Catholics in the state of Maryland will trend the state and more towards the Republicans.  I dont know whether I buy it or not.  We still hold the state legislature by a 2/3's majority in the house and senate.  We have a Republican governor, but that was a fluke and he was the first in 30 years.  We went for Gore by 17% and Kerry by 14%.  He doesnt claim Maryland will be taken over by Republicans, but he thinks it will eventually be a pretty neutral or barley lean-Democrat state.

What do you guys think?

Um, San Francisco is largely Catholic. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the most heavily Catholic states in the country. That logic makes no sense.

No, because we're going to force you to take the dump they call "Washington, D.C."

Thats what I was thinking, but he argued that Bush won MD Catholics so it proves that the Catholic population in Maryland will swing to the Republicans and make the state more and more of a swing state over the next several years. Also, he said that Federal Gov't employees working in DC will start to reside more in Virginia suburb's rather than Maryland suburb's therefore Virginia will become more of swing state and Maryland less of  Democratic stronghold.

No, give them D.C. and the other people in the states will be voting Republican in no time.

"A Liberal is just a Conservative who hasn't been mugged yet".
                                                         - Frank Rizzo

yes, just how everyone in NJ votes Republican because of Camden, oh wait.

DC would be just as close to it if it was part of the state or not, to think people would vote Republican just because a high crime area is part of their state is absurd.

Plus, Baltimore is probably just as bad as DC, if not worse.

Interesting that the federal government workers are deciding to migrate to Virginia rather than stay or move to Maryland.

If I were a cynic, I'd claim that the leftists have made their original living places places like Bethesda and Silver Spring so intolerable (high taxes; high prices/rents/fees; snotty stuck-up neighbors; "skyscraperfication") that a new home in some strip-malled Virginia borough sounds appealing. That process has already occured to CA (with AZ and CO the destinations) and MA (with NH the primary stop).

Washington, D.C., is not a dump.  Compassionate conservatives my ass.  Going around and calling cities with large ghetto (in other words liberal) areas dumps.  Not cool at all.

Maryland will likely stay Democratic due to its high percentage of African-Americans and white liberals.

Maryland will always go Democratic. The interesting thing is that for most of its history, its been a Democratic state. Tradition will keep Maryland dark blue (red with Atlas colors).

Other interesting facts...

Maryland was the only state where Gore's margin was greater than Clinton's in 1996.

All states were more Republican in 2004 than 1996 but Maryland had the third smallest swing (after Vermont and Calif.)

Have you ever even been to DC.  The place is the biggest dump.  It makes the worst parts of the Bronx look like Beverly Hills.

It depends on where you are in D.C. Some places are ghettoes (it's a city, after all). Some places are filthy rich.

I've been there and I liked it. Beats any lily-white suburb.

Wrong. I tell ya what's a really a decaying dump...most of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Well the people of that "dump" are on your side in the upcoming Senate race here. 

Despite what Ebowed says, both Baltimore City and DC are dumps. And YES it IS because of the ghettos and the ghetto rats.

DC has some places you want to avoid like the plague. Northeast DC (Adams Morgan, Woodley Park, Dupont Circle, where I'm staying) is nice, but the Southeast and some Eastern parts of DC (the areas near Prince George's County, Maryland) are a dump.

Maryland might be a swing state by 2050.  Maybe.

Some parts of the city are actually really nice.  Canton has always been a descent area, but now it is an extremley nice area.  Houses there are selling for 300,000-750,000.  On the other hand, some areas of the city are probably among the worse in the country.  I wouldnt walk down North Avenue in broad daylight for 1 million bucks.

You haven't been robbed and beaten enough yet to have some sense knocked into you.

True enough. But the bad really outweighs the good in Baltimore City.

Overall, I agree.  Some areas are extremley nice and others are extremley bad.  There is no in between.

I hear you, but Doherty and the rest up here are doing a good job cleaning Scranton up.  Hell, 8 years ago, there was 20 square miles of wastelands, now it is a vibrant area with restaurants, chain stores, etc.  Wilkes-Barre could use some cleaning up though. After McGroarty, the place started to rebound.  But, I would challenge your assertion about areas outside of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro, most of it is mountains and farms and is quite nice.

actually I was pickpocketed while there.

Seattle doesn't even have a ghetto.

Places like Maryland ain't liberal. Democratic maybe. But not liberal.

For all the years I've been publishing political articles, few states have generated more instances of conservative excess than Maryland, particularly regarding free speech issues. In practice, the state is hardly liberal, even if it elects some of the more liberal senators.

Nice one :D

He actually has a valid point. I do think Maryland is more Democratic than liberal. We have some very conservative people, it's not like even the Republicans are moderate or anything.

Bandit is actually very close to the truth on this one.

I agree.  I think Maryland is center/center-right on most social issues, but on economic issues we are solid democrat.  In my area (dundalk) we have some very strong union halls.

Maryland is populist to a degree IMO, because of its large black population, though it leans to the left due to the massive middle/upper class suburban population.