The Washington Post notes Maryland's leftward swing:
Over the past two years, Maryland has enacted laws that represent a dramatic liberal shift, even for a state long dominated by Democrats.
Driving the progressive swing is Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and the Maryland General Assembly, which now embraces legislation that it previously rejected. Emboldened by victories in statewide referendums, the governor and his allies have imposed tax increases, repealed the death penalty and approved a system to provide more than $1 billion in subsidies to a potential offshore wind farm.
Now, as the legislative session in Annapolis comes to an end, the state faces the question of whether Maryland is becoming a reliably liberal bastion like Massachusetts, California and Vermont.
Or has the state’s Democratic leadership moved too far to the left, potentially endangering incumbents at the polls in 2014?
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The results of the next election will answer the question of whether the Maryland Democratic Party has moved further left than its citizens will support. But as a liberal in a Democratic State, it has been nice over the last few years to see so much progressive legislation passed, and to see the voters of this state reject Republican attempts to overturn through referendum gay marriage and the Maryland Dream Act.
This is entirely different from my previous experience in this State, where I was frustrated by the lack of progressive change here despite the Democratic Majority in the Maryland Legislature. Attempts to do something about assault weapons and the death penalty failed in prior years.
So I hope that next year the trend continues and we see more progressive legislation passed. And for those of us that live in this state, we really need to have the backs of those members of the State Senate and House of Delegates who did the right thing by voting for progressive legislation and who find themselves targeted by the right for defeat in 2014.