Electoral Votes: 102000 Result:
Gore 57%In Maryland, the 1988 election doesn't really count. Bush the elder's victory over Michael Dukakis was a fluke. Does anyone remember Willie Horton, the Massachusetts murderer/rapist who was allowed a furlough despite serving a life sentence? The people Horton brutalized while on furlough lived in suburban Baltimore, and lots of normally-'Rat voters swung to Bush because of that.Bush 40%
Since the 1960 election, the only Republicans to carry Maryland were Nixon for his re-elect, Reagan for his re-elect, and George H. W. Bush during his first campaign. Clinton did not need Perot to win here either time. This is a Democrat state.
In other words, a single (if horrific) crime produced such terrible PR for Michael Dukakis in that specific state that the state went against its otherwise reliable party tendency.Which goes to show that what national politics would be like if "objective" journalism were actually objective!