Maryland as Bush Country?

[NHPolitico]

How crazy is this? Rove has to be tickled pink by these numbers in a Dem stronghold like Maryland.   This would put his approval in battle ground states easily into 50% territory. And note that Kerry's lead is without Nader on the ballot. You can probably chop off a point just from that.

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The Gonzales poll (released Tuesday and conducted by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies, an Annapolis-based polling and consulting firm-- MOE of 3.5 percentage points) showed Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski with a big lead over her Republican challenger, State Sen. E. J. Pipkin, and showed voters pretty evenly split on whether President Bush is doing a good job.

Asked who they would support in the Senate race, 59 percent said they would vote for Mikulski and 27 percent for Pipkin with 14 percent undecided.

On the question of Bush's performance as president, 47 percent disapproved and 45 percent approved in the Gonzales poll. In the presidential race, Democrat John Kerry held a slight lead over Bush, 48 percent to 43 percent, with 9 percent undecided.

[NHPolitico]

It's possible that Maryland will go over to the other side in November...

Mind you, a poll done in Mississippi in Febuary had Bush tied with a "generic Democrat".

I'm not really focusing on the match-up. Just the job approval rating in a solidly Dem state.