Maryland Primaries More About Democrats Than Republicans

Impact

It’s primary day in Maryland. The weather forecast is absolutely perfect, so adverse conditions are not going to prevent voters from going to the polls. One thing that may prevent voters from going to the polls is the Democratic presidential race is a one candidate race. Maryland has historically leaned Democratic.

My part of Maryland, on the other hand, leans Republican. The ratio of Republican voters to Democrats is approximately three to one. In addition, there are tables gathering signatures to force Maryland’s Marriage Equality Act to be put to a referendum. If these groups are successful in gaining enough signatures, the Marriage Equality Act will be put to a statewide vote in November.

There have not been as many ad buys as you would think. I live both in the District of Columbia and the Baltimore media market. The single National Ad was courtesy of Mitt Romney’s Super PAC attacking Rick Santorum’s record. 

The only local election ads I have heard were that of John Delaney’s run for the Democratic primary in the 6th Congressional District. Delaney is running against Maryland State Senator Rob Garagiola, who has been endorsed by numerous organizations. This is significant because whoever comes out on top will run against Republican Roscoe Bartlett. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has identified this race as a “Red to Blue” race and the DCCC plans on supporting the primary winner to turn this congressional seat Democratic.