By Todd Eberly

For MarylandReporter.com

The inaugural Maryland Poll from St. Mary’s College of Maryland surveyed the political landscape heading into the 2014 primary election and found that most Marylanders have absolutely no preference when it comes to the candidates for governor.

The poll is in line with prior polls for Gonzales Research, The Baltimore Sun, and The Washington Post. Much like those polls, the Maryland Poll finds a very unsettled race for the GOP nomination and a Democratic race where the favorite, the sitting two term lieutenant governor, is being beaten by “No Preference” by a 2 to 1 margin.

The 2014 primary is two months away and yet most voters appear to have no firm commitments to the candidates.

No firm commitments

Specifically, the poll finds Anthony Brown with 27% support, followed by Douglas Gansler at 11% and Heather Mizeur at 8%. But fully 54% expressed no preference.

In a three-way race, Brown is close to the 34% that would be sufficient to win a closely matched election. But much like the other candidates, he has been unable to expand his base of support even after a year of campaigning and advertising.

Gansler has been hammering away at Brown on the issue of Maryland’s failed health exchange, but with 11% support the issue does not appear to be helping him.

Mizeur has been generating a lot of coverage and interest of late owing to her unapologetically progressive campaign. She has embraced a living wage, physician-assisted suicide, a moratorium on fracking, legalization of marijuana, and host of other progressive wish list items. Yet she’s made no noticeable progress in winning over potential voters.

Brown’s to lose

The Democratic primary remains Brown’s to lose and it’s likely that the upcoming debates will present the final opportunities for either Gansler or Mizeur to change that reality.

Interestingly, Gansler seems to have shifted his strategy. Early on, he presented himself as a centrist, pro-business Democrat. Recently, he has de-emphasized those qualities and instead focused on more progressive policy issues. This was a mistake.

In a three way race with two candidates already chasing the progressive vote, the smart move is to target the voters that the other two are ignoring. Gansler needs to pivot back to the center. His only path to victory requires Brown and Mizeur to split the progressive vote while Gansler goes for the moderate and conservative Democrats still in the party.

GOP’s disastrous situation

On the Republican side the poll finds a disastrous situation for the state’s permanent minority party.

More than two-thirds of Maryland Republican voters have no preference. Larry Hogan claims the support of 16%, followed by David Craig at 7.8%. Neither Ron George nor Charles Lollar were able to crack 4%.

Maryland is a very tough nut for Republicans to crack. Democrats enjoy a 2 to 1 voter registration advantage and Republicans are rarely ever able to overcome the Democrats’ advantages in the state’s population centers.

For a Republican to win, the nominee would need several things to break his or her way.

The Democratic party must be divided after the primary. That could certainly happen this year.

The Democratic electorate must lack passion for the party’s nominee. That could certainly happen this year.

It must be a good year for Republicans nationally (like in 1994, 2002, or 2010). That could certainly happen this year.

Beyond those three ingredients, a Republican candidate also needs a unified and passionate Republican party and an electorate frustrated with the direction of the state. Neither of those two ingredients are present.

Not enough dissatisfaction

With regard to the direction of the state: Though the poll found a plurality of 46% agreeing that the state is going in the wrong direction, another 41% said it was going in the right direction. That margin is not sufficient for a Republican to overcome the Democrats’ built in advantages.

Keep in mind, Bob Ehrlich had an approval rating above 50% when he lost the 2006 election by 6 percentage points.

A clear majority of poll respondents supported increasing the minimum wage and reported that the Affordable Care Act either helped their families or had no effect on them, a slim majority supported decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, and pluralities supported affirmative action, the fracking moratorium and gun control.

In a particularly interesting finding, the survey asked respondents how they were registered and then later asked what party they consider themselves to be a member of. The voter registration numbers essentially match state records – 53% Democrat, 28% Republican, and 18.5% Independent or other.

When asked how they see themselves, the breakdown was 44% Democrat, 25% Republican, and 31% Independent or other. The breakdown shows that there is an opportunity for the GOP in the state, but only if the party can broaden its appeal and only if party activists accept that the party cannot win without attracting Independent voters.

No frontrunners in GOP

Several months ago, as I was arguing that David Craig represented the GOP’s best chance at reclaiming the governor’s mansion, many Republican activists challenged my assertion. Both privately and via social media these activists suggested a much stronger candidate existed and would soon enter the race and energize the party. They were referring to Larry Hogan.

Well, Hogan’s in the race and he is the “frontrunner.” But in a race where 64% of potential primary voters have no preference, there are no frontrunners. Hogan has not lit the fire that many were expecting.

Likewise, Craig has not run the experienced, well managed campaign that I was expecting. Craig sought to shore up the GOP base by taking a distinct right turn (thereby harming his ability to win in November) and Hogan has adopted a play it safe strategy by skipping forum after forum (thereby harming his credibility).

And no GOP candidate has any real success raising money. All four candidates combined could barely reach $1 million – meanwhile, Gansler and Brown are each sitting on multiple millions.

As things stand today, it’s hard to see the GOP reclaiming the keys to Government House.

Todd Eberly is associate professor of political science and Coordinator of Public Policy Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is currently on sabbatical writing a book, and had no involvement in the new poll.

Comment

The comment function is broken, and we can’t seem to fix it until we do a redesign to launch next week. Here’s a comment we received on this story.

FROM DR

1. Imho, Heather Mizeur is a loon, Doug Gansler is a jerk, and Tony Brown is an empty suit marionette whose strings are being pulled by people behind the scenes. That may seem strong, but most the the people with whom I have spoken or corresponded seem to agree with the general drift. So, it is not hard to understand why nobody is excited. Brown spoke at a recent public meeting in the Oxon Hill area in front of an audience of roughly 100 primarily ordinary citizens interested in public safety. Healthcare was never mentioned in either his speech or the all but non-existent question session afterwards.

2. And I find it hard to have any interest in voting on the GOP side. All politics are supposed to be local. Where I live, the 2010 primary had NO local GOP candidates–not for county-wide office, or county council, or state senate, or three delegate slots.

This year won’t be much different. There will be a few GOP candidates on the ballot, but less than a handful. None for county executive, or state senate.

There will be one GOP candidate for the three delegate slots. When I wrote him and asked for campaign and social media links to publicize his candidacy on the PG-Politics blog and mailing list, he refused to send a substantive answer. At least he bothered to refuse, almost all the rest of the GOP candidates from PG County completely ignored my request.

One of the GOP challengers to Donna Edwards is a weirdo who has run as a Democrat in the past. None of the others have contacted me or done any kind of campaigning that would bring themselves to the attention of Republican voters in my area.

And the same is true of the Republican candidates for governor. It is hard to see how anyone in my part of PG County could have an opinion about the GOP candidates because they are invisible, it takes significant effort to even find out who they are, and despite trying, I haven’t had much luck finding out enough information to distinguish among them.

At least in PG County, Republicans probably don’t much care about the election because the party has written off PG voters.

DISAPPOINTED FROM KATIESILVERSPRING

I am disappointed that Todd Eberly in his April 23rd article, http://marylandreporter.com/2014/04/23/analysis-new-poll-confirms-no-one-cares-about-race-for-md-governor/ doesn’t even mention Charles Lollar, one of the 4 GOP candidates for the nomination to run for governor (thank you for including him in the photo). It made DR’s Comment understandable, that he’s heard nothing of the candidates. If the media isn’t covering them, it is very hard for the average voter to find out about them.

But I disagree with DR that PG has been written off; both Charles Lollar and his LtGov running mate, Ken Timmerman, have committed a great deal of time in PG Co. I too live in a District totally without Republicans running for General Assembly. I live in the Belly-of-the-Beast known as LD20 where no one but a Progressive can get elected; they gerrymandered themselves into place. And, they run the state, setting the agenda with urban politics in a largely rural state.

But Eberly’s April 24th article does the same thing by only writing about the Democrats running, as if they are the only ones running at all, that there is no Primary of both parties upcoming.

I am not a Republican activist, and frequently bump “heads” on Twitter with those who are, working on behalf of Larry Hogan, the self-appointed nominee. I have attended many debates and forums (and, yes, one where Hogan actually showed up). I bring friends with me, who like one or the other when the whole thing is done.

I follow the Dems on Twitter and frequently read their updates as well; but they are lost to me. Someone has to tell the Democrat Party that there is more to Maryland than Takoma Park and Baltimore city.

I am unabashedly supporting Charles Lollar. Anyone, like DR, who wants to know more should come to the Maryland GOP convention being held tonight and tomorrow in Bethesda and meet all 4 candidates. You may not agree with me about my choice but you owe it to yourself and to the state of Maryland to get out there and discover who these candidates are. I cannot afford another 4 years of ANY Dem in public office.

KatieSilverSpring