Politics

Shock Poll: Republican Within 2… In Deep Blue Maryland

Derek Hunter Contributor
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A soon to be released poll by Gonzales Research, leaked to The Daily Caller, shows the Maryland Gubernatorial race to be extremely close – only 2 points, 46 to 44, separate Democratic Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown and Republican small businessman Larry Hogan.

Maryland is one of the deepest blue states, with a 2 to 1 registration advantage for Democrats, but Gonzales finds this race is well within the 3.5 percent margin of error of the survey, commissioned by the Maryland GOP.

Independents are breaking for Hogan, 46 to 32, and he’s receiving 89 percent support from his party while Brown is only pulling 73 percent of Democrats.

The Democratic and Republican Governors Associations have both entered the race, running ads for their respective candidates. President Barack Obama has campaigned for Brown, and Hillary Clinton will be going to the state this week. Governor Chris Christie, head of the RGA, has campaigned with Hogan and is scheduled to return this week as well.

Taxes (32 percent) and the economy/jobs (29 percent) are the top issues with voters. Maryland’s unemployment rate has been bucking the national trend and is now higher than the national average, currently sitting at 6.4 percent.

In the past 8 years, when Brown served as Lieutenant Governor to Democrat Martin O’Malley, the state saw 40 tax increases on things ranging from gasoline taxes to taxing rain.

There has been a focus on race in this cycle — the Maryland Democratic Party has mailed out 2 fliers to black voters encouraging them to make Brown the state’s first African-American governor and equating him to Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, while tying Republicans to segregation and Ferguson, Missouri. Gonzales found the African-American vote breaking 87 to 5 for Brown.

The survey was conducted by Gonzales between October 20 and October 24 with 822 likely voters.