DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03946.v1
title: Washington Post Maryland Poll, January 2004
title: Version 1

description: This special topic poll, fielded January 4-7, 2004, was
 undertaken to assess respondents' views on economic conditions and
 government performance in the state of Maryland. Residents of Maryland
 were asked for their opinions on the job performance of Governor Bob
 Ehrlich and the condition of the Maryland economy. Those polled were
 asked what they believed the biggest problem facing Maryland was today,
 who they trusted to do a better job coping with the problems the state
 faced, and what Governor Ehrlich's biggest accomplishment in his first
 year was. Respondents were queried on whether they felt Senator Barbara
 Mikulski deserved to be re-elected in the year's United States Senate
 election, which political party they were leaning toward, whom they
 would vote for in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary, whether they
 voted in the 2002 Maryland gubernatorial election, and whom they voted
 for (Bob Ehrlich or Kathleen Kennedy Townsend). Further questions
 queried what steps respondents would find acceptable to deal with the
 state's budget shortfall and what kind of tax increase would be the best
 if the legislature decided to raise taxes to balance the budget.
 Additional questions focused on whether respondents would favor allowing
 slot-machine gambling at horse-racing tracks or other places in
 Maryland, whether they would favor legalizing casino gambling in
 Maryland, and whether they would play if there were slot machines in
 Maryland. Opinions were also solicited on corruption in state government
 and a state law that would allow gay and lesbian couples to enter into
 civil unions, giving them some of the legal rights of married couples.
 Background variables include political orientation, education,
 ethnicity, household income, and whether the respondent was registered
to vote.
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.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post Maryland Poll, January 2004
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in Maryland.
description: (1) Additional information about sampling, interviewing,
 weighting, and sampling error may be found in the codebook. (2) The data
 are provided as an SPSS portable file. (3) This collection has not been
 processed by ICPSR staff. ICPSR is distributing the data and
 documentation for this collection in essentially the same form in which
 they were received. When appropriate, documentation has been converted
 to Portable Document Format (PDF), data files have been converted to
 non-platform-specific formats, and variables have been recoded to ensure
 respondents' anonymity. (4) The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a
 Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed
 by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
 software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain
a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.