Fundraising in Maryland

The Washington Post shows McCain with $234,649 and Obama with $877,247 of contributions by voters in Maryland. This comes as no surprise, since Obama is clearly going to win the state of Maryland. However, it is interesting to see just how much the divide is in campaign contributions. As we all know, money is key to a running a successful presidential campaign and fundraising is a good indicator of how well a candidate will do in a state. It is obvious that Obama has done well in Maryland in almost tripling the amount of funding that McCain has seen from this state.

The issues or race?

When analyzing the political history of Maryland it is interesting to read that it has a history of voting Democratic, mostly due to the large percentage of blacks in its population. The National Journal Almanac discusses Maryland's demographics explaining that the blacks that make up the Democratic voters do not fit the usual Democratic profile. They are affluent and well educated, however they still vote like those with less education and who are less well off. This stood out to me as an issue not only in Maryland, but also in this election across the board.

Have the parties moved from being about issues to being about race? While I know that there are black Republicans, even Maryland's very own Michael Steele who ran for Senator in 2006, it seems as though many people are voting in this election and in Maryland historically for particular candidates or the parties because of their race.

What makes this even more interesting is Barack Obama takes a strong stance in showing how this election should not be about race, and trying to prove to the American public that he represents all walks of life and all races of people. However, are people voting for him simply because they are black? Is he thriving off of the black vote?

50 days to go

Maryland can be classified as "Strong Obama" this election cycle, which is of no surprise to voters, candidates, and political analysts. Maryland has a very large black population, which will make their voters strongly identify with Obama, as well as turn out to vote in this historic election. The National Journal's political analysis of Maryland states, "Republican statewide candidates need more than two-thirds of the non-black votes to win, and that’s pretty hard to achieve when 17% of the votes are cast in the upscale and heavily liberal suburbs of Montgomery County, northwest of Washington."

Maryland holds its presidential primary a week before the well known "Super Tuesday", however they have gotten little notice in elections due to their consistent Democratic candidate voting nature. This election cycle, their primary was held on February 12th.

The governor and two senators are all Democrats and are not up for reelection this year, so those positions will not be mixing up the presidential election this year. Out of the eight congressional seats that Maryland has, only two of those seats are held by Republicans. It is not being reported that any of the seats up for reelection this year will make a difference, or be very close watches.

The National Journal Almanac lists Maryland's registered voters as "D: 1,733,126(55.1%) ; R: 909,275(28.9%) ; ; O: 500,411(15.9%)".

In four past election cycles, as is the trend with Maryland, they have voted for the Democratic candidates. In 1992 and 1996 the electoral votes were cast for Clinton, in 2000 for Gore and 2004 for Kerry.

Obama has it

Maryland's latest poll on Pollster.com is strongly supporting Obama, with a 53-37.2 lead on McCain. Maryland joins the 189 states that Pollster has grouped as Strong Obama states. These states are more than likely going to have no change in their overall support, but anything can happen in the 54 days remaining! More updates to come...