Many Maryland residents are reportedly indifferent to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s gerrymandering push in the state, and instead wish the state government would rather focus on more pressing issues.
Less than a third of Maryland residents think mid-decade redistricting in the state is a “high” priority, Politico reported on Monday, citing data from a new University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) survey. Meanwhile, only 27% of respondents named redrawing Maryland’s congressional maps as a top important issue — while 77% named health care as a key issue, 75% cited the quality of K-12 education as an issue of top importance and 73% said the same about reducing crime, according to the poll.
A spokesperson for Moore’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The poll also showed that 28% of respondents said the Maryland congressional lines were drawn fairly, while 41% said they were drawn unfairly and 29% did not have an opinion, Politico reported. Moreover, the survey found that 61% of Democratic voters and 71% of GOP voters said they were paying at least a bit of attention to the gerrymandering debate, according to the outlet.
“This is not a huge priority for Maryland voters,” Mileah Kromer, the director of the university’s Institute of Politics, which conducted the survey, said, Politico reported. “Perhaps one of the reasons it hasn’t really caught on as a major priority is because over the last year, Maryland voters continue to express concerns about the economic situation in the state.”
Among Maryland Democrats, 25% said they do not support redistricting mid-decade and think it should not be done, Politico reported, citing the Monday survey. By comparison, 28% of Maryland Democrats responded that they do not like it but believe it is necessary, while just 6% said they back it but think it is the wrong thing to do, and 32% said they approve of mid-decade redistricting and think it should be done, the poll says, Politico reported.
Of Republicans surveyed, 67% said they do not approve of mid-decade gerrymandering and it should not be done, while 9% said they view it as necessary. Less than 10% of Maryland Republicans said they like mid-decade redistricting, but think it is the wrong thing to do or that they like it and lawmakers should continue with it, according to the survey, Politico reported.
Moore signed an executive order on Dec. 9 calling for a special legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly to begin on Dec. 16, according to a news release. On Thursday, top Democrats in the state’s Legislature said that redistricting in the state will not be on the agenda during the special legislative session, Politico reported.
In October, Democratic Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson sent a letter to his Democratic colleagues, in which he stated that he would not back holding a special session to redraw the state’s congressional maps. Ferguson also asserted in the letter that he believes mid-decade redistricting in Maryland would be “catastrophic.”
“Further, over the past few months, I have spoken with my counterparts in other states,” Ferguson wrote in the letter. “One theme has echoed throughout all these conversations that I do not think is being captured in national discussions regarding redistricting – several Republican states are resisting pressure to redistrict and are mostly able to do so because Maryland and other Democratic states are not redistricting either. In short – if Maryland redistricts, Republican-led states that were not planning to do so, will. That means that Maryland’s potential gain of one seat is immediately eliminated, and, in fact, worsens the national outlook.”
The poll surveyed 801 Maryland adults, most of whom were registered voters, and was funded by the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at UMBC. The survey was conducted between Dec. 2 and 6 and has a margin of error of 3.5%.
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