MD DUers: Is Maryland a Southern state or a Northeastern one?

[mot78]

I have a friend who's going to MD in a few weeks, and he's wants to know about the state more for some reason. Culturally speaking, has Maryland retained any of it's Southern past, or is it effectively an extension of the Norhteast? Do most Southerners in MD vote Repug or Democrat?

[JohnKleeb]

1. Virginian answers

I would put Maryland in the Mid Atlantic region. I say suburban Maryland and of course Baltimore are democrat as they get, however I think the rural areas are very republican, and Annapolis may be republican too, the naval academy and all and base.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

22. Baltimore is a Democratic stronghold

and an African-American powerbase too. The rural areas have tended GOP for a while. Annapolis has always been a Democratic town, but with some of the new suburbs the feelings have tended to be pro-Republican-ish.

20 years ago the Republicans in MD were hard core right wing fundies, but Erlich and that woman who almost becamse governor on her "I'll cut lots of taxes" platform have make the MD Republicans more Rockefeller and less Buchanan.

MD is going to be in our column for a long time I think.

[Pithlet]

2. Culturally, it isn't southern

I especially notice the difference having moved from Maryland to Tennesee, where I now live. The 'burbs are definitely more conservative politically than the city, but I still wouldn't call it a southern culture.

[Yupster]

3. At the start of the Civil War,

Maryland had more freed Blacks than any other state. Not that this genm of info had anything to do with your question, but it's interesting to me.

[arewethereyet]

4. technically its southern, culturally, akin to Penn

if you want to think of that as NE, feel free.

(Virginian with Delaware roots)

[absyntheNsugar]

5. Wasn't Maryland North of the Mason-Dixon?

I thought that was the official DMZ for North and South....

[arewethereyet]

7. yes, thats why I said technically southern

but that Mason-Dixon stuff was a LONG time ago. things have changed a little since then.

[Peregrine]

10. No the Mason-Dixon is a few mile stretch of MDs norther border

The western counties are more akin to W. VA and the coal areas of PA. They are very poor with major industry like Kelly Springfield having left the area over the last decade.

Donald Schafer, the loveable Comptroller (and former Governor), once refered to the Eastern Shore (Those counties east of the Chesapeak) as that shithouse (they never vote democrat). Guns, crabs, and Tysons Chicken is what the Eastern Shore is all about.

Montgomery County, Prince Georges County, and Baltimore City account for about half of the population of the state and are very democrat. And generally control the outcome of statewide elections.

[Frances]

6. I lived in Rockville, MD from 1974 to 2002

Rockville is in Montgomery County, which has a very diverse population. I think that the closer to DC, the more Democratic the county is.

[Bombtrack]

8. It's not part of dixie, however it's part the "southern lowlands" region

, at least most of it, outside of Baltimore and Mont. county. in the "10 regions of US politics


Southern Lowlands

The Southern Lowlands region is notable for having some of the most bizarrely shaped congressional districts in the country, many of them drawn to produce majority-black constituencies that favor Democrats (a process that simultaneously creates overwhelmingly white districts, to the benefit of the Republican Party). Southern Lowlands has the largest percentage of African-Americans among our 10 regions, and thus it includes some of the most Democratic counties in the United States. But these counties are scattered across nine states, and in almost every state they are outvoted by some of the most Republican counties in the US. In contrast to Northeast Corridor and Great Lakes, which are more uniform in their allocation of votes, urban and suburban areas still produce strongly different results here, with the latter giving the GOP an advantage overall.

The region begins in Prince George's County, Maryland, and ends on the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. It includes many of the touchstones of the civil rights movement, from Atlanta, which touted itself as "the city too busy to hate," to Selma, Alabama, where the local police became infamous for beating up peaceful protesters. Once known for abject poverty, the Southern Lowlands region is now near the middle of the pack in terms of income and education, and it boasts healthy population growth. Its increasingly white-collar electorate is typified by Charlotte, now a major banking center.

Politically, Southern Lowlands has moved toward the GOP in recent years, but it's still a swing region overall. US Senate seats in Georgia and North Carolina have constantly changed parties repeatedly over the years, though the Republicans have won the most recent contests. Democrats take solace in their capture of governor's mansions in Louisiana and Virginia since George W. Bush took office.

For decades, Southern Lowlands was represented nationally by segregationists such as George Wallace. Then, in 1976, former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter was elected president as a representative of the "New South." Carter received overwhelming support from his home region the first time he ran, but this loyalty mostly vanished when he tried to win re-election against Ronald Reagan. Carter's biracial coalition has been difficult to replicate, but that hasn't stopped North Carolina's John Edwards from trying to do it this time around.

In Democratic primaries, this was Jesse Jackson's strongest region in 1984 and 1988, partly because so many white voters no longer participate in Democratic Party politics at all.


Northeast Corridor

Named after Amtrak's most (perhaps only) profitable route, Northeast Corridor begins in Connecticut's Fairfield County and stops in Montgomery County, Maryland, just short of the nation's capital. Northeast Corridor is dominated by New York City, which casts about one-fifth of its vote, but New Jersey is the only state that falls completely within the region. This is by far the most densely populated region, and over 96 percent of its residents live in urban areas. It is also the most affluent and the best-educated region, though its population growth rate has long been behind the national average.

Al Gore won 62 percent of the vote here in 2000, which was the best showing by a Democrat in any region since Lyndon Johnson was on the ballot four decades ago. But one-party dominance goes back only to 1996, when Bill Clinton won re-election. Before that, the suburban parts of the region (including most of New Jersey but also Long Island) often cancelled out the central cities, helping Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and the first President Bush to win electoral votes here. In contrast, George W. Bush carried only 11 of the 48 counties in this region, showing strength only in areas that don't have much in the way of apartment complexes and strip malls -- yet. He lost Fairfield County, Long Island's Suffolk County, and the borough of Staten Island, all of which supported his father's losing campaign in 1992.

Historically, Northeast Corridor has been the base of the Republican Party's liberal wing, offering up such presidential nominees as Teddy Roosevelt and Tom Dewey. Until last year, it was represented at either end by two of the most liberal GOP members in the US House: Christopher Shays of Connecticut and Connie Morella of Maryland. The defeat of Morella in 2002, coming one year after the Republicans lost the New Jersey governor's seat vacated by Christine Todd Whitman, represented a low-water mark for the Nelson Rockefeller wing of the party.

Given its prominence in cultural and financial spheres, the Northeast Corridor has been embarrassingly weak in fielding presidential candidates in recent years. The last White House occupant from this region was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the last nominee was Dewey in 1948. More recently, New York City and its environs have specialized in political figures whose national campaigns have closed on opening night -- including Rockefeller himself, John Lindsay, Geraldine Ferraro, and Bill Bradley. The region's only candidate so far in the 2004 sweepstakes is the Rev. Al Sharpton, known more for his dramatic flair (and his pompadour) than his vote-getting power.

In Democratic presidential primaries, the region favors traditional liberals such as Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale; it has been lukewarm toward Southerners such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, no matter how forward-thinking.

(also part of it is in Appalacia
http://www.massinc.org/commonwealth/new_map_exclusive/appalachia.html

[Moderator]

23. Bombtrack

Per DU copyright
rules please post
only 4 paragraphs
from the news source.



Thank you.

DU Moderator

[Bombtrack]

26. It isn't a newssource

it's a research institution

there is a difference, and I haven't seen any rules against research institutions

[TheDonkey]

9. I grew up in Maryland

Great state and definetly not southern. It really is just a northeast state to the south. I think the DC and Baltimore influence help the democratic voting but just in general it never seemed like the south (accents, culture, lifestyles, slaveholders?, etc).

[blueraven95]

11. its a little bit of both

Ever since I was really little, I always thought of MD as being Northern. This was taught in school, because MD fought with the North in the Civil War. It wasn't until I went to college in Philly that I ever even heard the idea that it was part of the South. (Or that I learned that the major reason that MD went North in the Civil War was because it was taken over by the military).

Today, the Baltimore-Washington area is very much like Philly or any other Northern metropolis. Annapolis leans to the right, but there are very active Democrat and Green parties. However, if you cross the bay into the Eastern Shore then you are in the heart of the south.

I have been very proud of MD (because of its Democratic leanings--like our amazing senators, and Baltimore's great mayor), but this past election a Republican was elected gov. for the first time in a long time. I don't think he will stay in office for long, as he has already made people hate him, and Mayor O'Malley will probably run soon.

Socially, MD is on the forefront of liberal causes, putting forth ground breaking legislation dealing with equal rights for homosexuals, smoking legislation, and pro-choice work.

[Muddleoftheroad]

20. Former Marylander

Maryland definitely didn't seceed, but many wanted to. The famous Maryland Line (Washington referred to Maryland units that "held the line" against British forces as "the Maryland Line") served in the Southern army as the 1st Maryland. Several other Maryland units also fought for the South.

Today, however, Maryland is mostly a northern state just located south of the Mason-Dixon.

[mmonk]

12. This North Carolinian offers an opinion

Its a mid atlantic state which normally has a mixture of culture.

[Devlzown]

13. One of my best friends is from Maryland.

I call him a Yankee -- we met in college here in Mississippi and have stayed in touch over the years. He has some extended family here (his mother was from here), but he doesn't have much in common with southerners culturally. He and I certainly don't think of Maryland as a southern state.

[ClintonTyree]

14. I used to date a woman.................

From Cumberland. She always bragged about her "southern heritage" and how she was a good "southern cook". It always baffled me because she lived about 20 miles from the Pennsylvania border. "Southern" to me does not include Maryland, although technically I guess it could be considering the 13 original colonies and their location in the United States as we know it now.
There were a lot of idiosyncracies about this woman, but her "southern roots" bothered me the least.

[Blue_Tires]

15. you're as likely to see a rebel flag

in southern md as in any other southern state...

[peacebuzzard]

16. I class it as borderline...

I went to HS there last century, worked in DC sometime later and I found it equal in temperament to VA, altho quite abit chillier, (Baltimore and its atmosphere) but you have a real "provincial" attitude; not exactly pure southern and not too liberal north either.

[DjTj]

17. It definitely varies by region...

I grew up in Maryland just outside of Washington, DC and the culture was definitely northeast. The more northeastern parts of Maryland definitely vote democrat. However, eastern maryland can be much more like the south and many people there vote republican.

I think before the Civil War, Maryland was very much a southern state (slaves and all) excluding Baltimore, but since it did not have to endure Reconstruction, the connection with the South is much looser now. That story is actually rather interesting because Lincoln had to literally jail MD delegates to prevent them from seceding and creating an island of the Washington, DC.

The great expansion of the federal government has also brought a more urban, northeastern culture into Maryland. The more conservative transplants into DC tend to live in Virginia while the more liberal tend to live in Maryland, perpetuating a Democratic majority in MD.

[Karenina]

18. My parents moved to Maryland

from N.Y. when I was 2. My dad worked at a hospital and we lived in physicians' housing. As I was to discover upon entering the local elementary school (which I desegregated) our enclave was a "utopia." My father's colleagues were from Poland, Hungary, Great Britain, Trinidad, Hawaii, Serbia, Panama, India and we kids were a multi-colored tribe who thought responded to whatever language whoever's mom spoke when trying to keep us under some semblance of control.

Once entering school, I was SHOCKED. I was the only dark-skinned one. Some teachers were AWFUL to me even though I was an excellent student. Kids called me a "nigger." My friends' parents had to hide me under a blanket on the floorboard of their cars till we passed the gatehouses of their "restricted" communities. I was thrown out of my ballet class after going up on point, the instructor told my mother that to continue would be unfair as I was very good, but the black body would NEVER be accepted in classical ballet.

I left the state at 15 and have been conflicted about it since. My experiences were long ago, but on subsequent visits I have been confronted by the remnants of the "Old South."

[blueraven95]

19. Your experiences sound...

very similar to those in a book by Cynthia Voight.

Where in MD did you live?

[Karenina]

24. near Annapolis.

.

[carolinayellowdog]

21. In 1860, 49% of MD Blacks were free, but...

51% were enslaved, and the heritage of slavery still persists, especially in southern MD and the Eastern Shore. My answer to your question would be no. It's neither. Or both.

[nomatrix]

25. Lived up and down the east coast

Here's our official rule of thumb as to whether you are in the dixie/south, without looking at a map...

Go into a restaurant and order ice tea. If you are asked "Sweet tea?"
you are in Dixie, and will be the best sweetened tea you've ever drank.

Non-Geographically, Alabama is deeper South than Florida, which is New England/South.

Maryland, at least north of Baltimore, is more like Pennsylvania than N.J. or N.Y. and not as L.L. Bean as CT. More friendly than MA. (Anywhere is)
VA and S.C. have the most sweet-southern-dixie hospitality in the historical/tourist locations.

There is nowhere like Louisiana, especially for food & people.

If your friend looking for a different flavors of the south, these are some good choices. Everywhere is as different as the accents.

[grasswire]

28. there was an article last year....

...maybe in the Atlantic Monthly, not sure....that revealed the extreme deep cultural divisions that lay right alongside each other in Maryland. Suburb was yuppie-granola-NPR, and right across a highway was deep redneck country with what might be called "southern" values regarding race and patriotism. Two different societies right next to each other.

[carpetbagger]

27. MD is defined best by congressional districts.

Historically, it is a border state from the mid-Atlantic, Pennsylvanian zone of cultural influence, with Virginian/Carolinian influence on the eastern shore (meaning the peninsula from the Atlantic ocean that goes west to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, the peninsula that contains Delaware).

If you look at it, about 75% of Marylanders live along the Washington-Baltimore axis (including Annapolis). These folks act pretty northeastern, vote pretty northeasterly (read, democratic with some pockets of GOP sympathizers in the fat-wallet districts, and like other areas). Other posters talk about black populations, and I'd definitely categorize them as Northern in character.

The things that make Maryland a bit different than, say, Jersey or Connecticut, are the people of the two rural congressional districts. MD-1 is southern. That's the eastern shore. Southern accent, southern industry, southern attitudes, southern religion, southern politics. They're most closely aligned with tidewater Virginia.

MD-6 is also a conservative district, but it's more of a Central-Pennsylvania-Eastern-Ohio type of conservative, and more of that type of "Deer Hunter" culture.