Interviewed yesterday by the New York Times, Trump said:
This seemed very weird. Not to make too big a deal of it, there were a little more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans registered in Baltimore County during the last presidential election. In fact, that’s the case for Maryland as a whole, so it’s not as if Baltimore is a standout in the state. (according to figures from the Maryland State Board of Elections – Voter Registration Statistics )
So I think we can take it that the President was indulging in hyperbole.
of course, Conservative outlets have been bemoaning the state of Maryland for a while:
Washington Times article from 2012:
Of course, that’s measuring by elected officials, not Republicans in the state.
Considering that Trump gets much of his information from such sources, maybe he really does believe that there are few Republicans in Baltimore. But the facts, while showing far fewer Republicans than Democrats, are still far from “none”.
The only valid point made and confirmed in that interview is that the President is severely cognitively impaired. Anything else gleaned from the interview is suspect and may not have any basis in reality.
It’s all part of his typical exaggeratory speech. By now, we should know not to take Trump literally. I could see him saying exactly the same thing about Chicago, if he hasn’t already.
I took that from the lead on the Wikipedia article:
It’s not until you read much farther down that you get to:
[quote]
Baltimore is an independent city, and not part of any county.[/quote
This is extremely weird to me-- I don’t recall ever encountering a city (aside from Washington, D.C. and New York City) which isn’t part of the surrounding county, but is a political entity unto itself. (New York City is even weirder, with each borough being its own county). But every other city I’ve known has been part of a county.
All of this is independent of the point – Baltimore doesn’t differ materially from its surroundings, politically.
“Independent city” is the term you’re looking for, I think. There’s apparently 41 of them, almost all in Virginia, with the exception of Baltimore, St. Louis, and Carson City.
I took that from the lead on the Wikipedia article:
It’s not until you read much farther down that you get to:
[quote]
Baltimore is an independent city, and not part of any county.
[/quote
This is extremely weird to me-- I don’t recall ever encountering a city (aside from Washington, D.C. and New York City) which isn’t part of the surrounding county, but is a political entity unto itself. (New York City is even weirder, with each borough being its own county). But every other city I’ve known has been part of a county.
All of this is independent of the point – Baltimore doesn’t differ materially from its surroundings, politically.[/QUOTE]
Actually, it does. From your link:
Baltimore City Republicans: 32,337
Baltimore City Democrats: 308,854
In my experience as a Baltimore City resident, it’s very liberal and far less wealthy in most neighborhoods. As you get further into the county it’s wealthier and more conservative.
Something wrong there.
Ahh – I see. I misread the table., thinking Baltimore County represented county and city, and getting twice as many there as in Maryland as a whole. I hadn’t noticed that the city had different statistics (and didn’t realize at the time that the City was essentially its own county).
Still, surprising that there are such disparate results for the surrounding county as for the citry. Even granting that cities tend more Democratic, that usuyally extends to the suburbs as well.
Not sure what the complaint is. The vast majority of the elite lawyers live in large cities, and the vast majority of large cities are primarily Democratic. I don’t see where Rosenstein being from Baltimore is unique in any way.
That’s under the similar, but “not the same as” note in the Wikipedia article. Apparently, that’s a consolidated city-county. Others of that type include “Philadelphia, Denver, Honolulu, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Athens, Augusta, New Orleans, [and] Anchorage.”
The distinction seems to amount purely to the jurisdiction’s self-definition. In both cases, a single governmental unit takes on the responsibilities usually divided between city and county governments. And the census bureau treats independent cities as counties for statistical purposes.
