MarkeTrak Baltimoreans Generally Approve of State Legislature’s Actions

Posted by WBA Research    Apr 26, 2013   0 comments

In a WBA Research poll conducted over the past week, Baltimore area residents generally approved of the actions taken during the recent Maryland legislative session.

Baltimore area residents offered their opinions on five key actions:

1. Gun Control: (64% approve, 29% disapprove)
  • Legislation limits magazines to 10 bullets, requiring fingerprinting for the purchase of a handgun, and banning 45 types of semiautomatic rifles.
2. Offshore Wind: (58% approve, 13% disapprove)
  • Legislation authorizes the construction of a wind farm off the coast of Ocean City, MD.
3. Medical Marijuana: (52% approve, 23% disapprove)
  • New legislation creates a commission that will take bids from academic medical research centers that choose to create their own medical marijuana programs, drawing from either federal marijuana growers or state-licensed facilities.
4. The Death Penalty: (40% approve, 44% disapprove)
  • Legislation has abolished the death penalty in the state, making life without parole the steepest penalty a criminal can face.
5. Gas Taxes: (19% approve, 71% disapprove)
  • In order to fund transportation priorities in the state, a 1% gas tax will go into effect in July.

Baltimore area residents were also asked to rate the job performance of Governor O’Malley, Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, and the state legislature. About one-third (35%) approve of the job Governor O’Malley is doing (45% disapprove), one-fourth (25%) approve of the job Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown is doing (22% disapprove, but 53% did not have an opinion), and nearly one-third (32%) approve of the job the entire state legislature is doing (41% disapprove).

About MarkeTrak®

This research was fielded in the Baltimore Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) from April 16th to the 21st, and is part of WBA’s established MarkeTrak® quarterly public opinion study. A total of 401 adults were polled (200 via telephone interviews and 201 via an online survey), with a geographic sample representative of the market. For each of the issues, respondents were presented with the options of strongly approve, mostly approve, neither approve nor disapprove, mostly disapprove, strongly disapprove, and don’t know.

Baltimore MarkeTrak®, along with a companion Washington, DC area survey, piggybacks general interest questions with those of specific clients who share the cost of the study to obtain answers to critical questions.All client data are proprietary and confidential. This study on legislative issues and opinions was not conducted for any organization.