Will Maryland eventually trend "purple"?

[Moooooo]

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?

[Moooooo]

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

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.

[Moooooo]

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.

[Moooooo]

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

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.

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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.

[Moooooo]

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.