DOI: 10.3886/icpsr24595.v1
title: Washington Post Maryland Poll, October 2007
title: Version 1

description: This special topic poll, fielded October 18-22, 2007, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the current presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. The topic of this survey was the budget deficit and government performance in the state of Maryland. Residents of Maryland were asked about the job performance of Governor Martin O'Malley and whether they approved of the way the Maryland legislature and United States Senator Ben Cardin were handling their jobs. Respondents identified the most important issues facing the state of Maryland,
whether the state was moving in the right direction, and rated the condition of the state economy. Views were sought on the Maryland state tax system, the state budget deficit, and the governor's plan to reduce the deficit. Respondents were also asked how closely they were following the 2008 presidential race, for whom they would vote if the 2008 presidential primary were held that day, and their opinions of the candidates.
Additional topics addressed immigration in Maryland, the death penalty, a state law that would allow same-sex marriage and civil unions, and a proposal to raise the gasoline tax to pay for transportation projects. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, marital status, household income, education level, voter registration status, political party affiliation, political philosophy, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, whether respondents owned or rented their homes, and the presence of children under age 18 living at the residence.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The data were weighted using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and non-sampling deviations from population values. Respondents customarily were classified into one of 48 cells based on age, race, sex, and education. Weights were assigned so the proportion in each of these 48 cells matched the actual population proportion according to the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the interview. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post Maryland Poll, October 2007
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the state of Maryland.
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, BLOCKCNT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (ZIP Code) have been replaced with blank codes.System-missing values were recoded to -1.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.Several codes in the variable CBSA contain diacritical marks.The data collection was produced by Taylor Nelson Sofres of Horsham, PA. Original reports using these data may be found via the 
Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site.