Every 20 years, the Maryland General Assembly is required to include on the ballot a question about holding a constitutional convention to revise the state‟s constitution. Would you favor or oppose holding such a convention at this time?

The results were:

Favor: 44%
Oppose: 42%
Don’t know enough: 9%
No answer: 5%

In other words, a plurality but not a majority of voters supported a constitutional convention.  However, with a margin of error of 4%, it was a statistical dead heat.

Even more interesting was the cross tabulation including  ideology: 58% of liberals but only 40% of conservatives favored convening a state constitutional convention.  Moderates, the middle category, came in at 42%.  The results caught me by surprise because I would have thought that conservatives, who are in the minority in Maryland, would have been the strongest supporters.  Generally, it is members of the minority party who are the strongest supporters of democratic reform.  My only explanation for this result right now is that classical conservatives generally are more suspicious of government change than progressives, and the purpose of a state constitutional convention would be to change the status quo.

My guess is that once the special interests and incumbent party leaders–the two groups with the most to lose from convening a state constitutional convention–begin to publicly oppose a yes vote, these numbers could dramatically change.

Date: February 9, 2010; Noon-1:00

Program Description (from WYPR): Every twenty years, the Maryland legislature is required to put a “Constitutional Convention” question on the ballot–asking voters if the state’s Constitution should be tweaked, or even ripped up and written anew. We’ll get some history from Dan Friedman, author of The Maryland State Constitution: A Reference Guide, and debate the “ConCon” with state senator Allan H. Kittleman and J.H. Snider, who writes about democratic reform and runs the “Marylanders for a State Constitutional Convention” blog.

Summary: Lawmakers would prefer not to put a question to convene a constitutional convention on the November ballot but were advised by Maryland’s Assistant Attorney General that they have no choice in the matter.