Today, I am pleased to present a guest blog by Adam Pagnucco:
A poll commissioned by Comptroller Peter Franchot has found massive opposition to Montgomery County’s liquor monopoly.
Among those polled, 69% support eliminating the County monopoly with slightly higher levels of support for repeal–74%–among people who describe themselves as definite voters. The results indicate that residents across party, gender, age, education and ideological lines favor getting rid of the laws granting the county control over alcohol sales.
The poll question was asked in a broader statewide poll on a number of issues. The statewide poll, conducted by Normington, Petts & Associates in September 2015, had roughly 500 respondents with 84 in Montgomery.
The MoCo residents were asked whether they favor or oppose a “proposal to get rid of the laws making Montgomery County an alcohol controlled county.” Following are the responses from each segment of the poll with a sample size of at least 20 respondents.
(Editor’s Note: Though 84 is a small sample size with an inevitably large margin of error of 10.9%, the difference between the share of favor and oppose getting rid of the monopoly is so large that it is statistically significant despite the small sample.)
Do you favor or oppose a proposal to get rid of the laws making Montgomery County an alcohol controlled county?
Full Sample (N=84)
Strongly favor 48%
Somewhat favor 21
Somewhat oppose 6
Strongly oppose 17
Don’t know 7
Total favor 69
Total oppose 24
Definite Voters (N=72)
Strongly favor 52%
Somewhat favor 22
Somewhat oppose 5
Strongly oppose 14
Don’t know 7
Total favor 74
Total oppose 19
Men (N=51)
Strongly favor 55%
Somewhat favor 18
Somewhat oppose 6
Strongly oppose 18
Don’t know 3
Total favor 73
Total oppose 24
Women (N=34)
Strongly favor 38%
Somewhat favor 26
Somewhat oppose 6
Strongly oppose 16
Don’t know 13
Total favor 64
Total oppose 23
Age 18-44 (N=30)
Strongly favor 57%
Somewhat favor 20
Somewhat oppose 0
Strongly oppose 18
Don’t know 4
Total favor 78
Total oppose 18
Age 45-59 (N=34)
Strongly favor 49%
Somewhat favor 20
Somewhat oppose 9
Strongly oppose 14
Don’t know 8
Total favor 69
Total oppose 23
Age 60+ (N=20)
Strongly favor 34%
Somewhat favor 25
Somewhat oppose 11
Strongly oppose 23
Don’t know 8
Total favor 58
Total oppose 34
Education, some college or less (N=23)
Strongly favor 38%
Somewhat favor 14
Somewhat oppose 12
Strongly oppose 27
Don’t know 9
Total favor 52
Total oppose 39
Education, college graduate or more (N=60)
Strongly favor 53%
Somewhat favor 22
Somewhat oppose 4
Strongly oppose 14
Don’t know 6
Total favor 75
Total oppose 18
Registered Democrats (N=46)
Strongly favor 50%
Somewhat favor 17
Somewhat oppose 9
Strongly oppose 19
Don’t know 5
Total favor 67
Total oppose 28
Registered Republicans (N=23)
Strongly favor 42%
Somewhat favor 25
Somewhat oppose 4
Strongly oppose 18
Don’t know 11
Total favor 67
Total oppose 22
Liberal Ideology (N=29)
Strongly favor 52%
Somewhat favor 14
Somewhat oppose 4
Strongly oppose 24
Don’t know 6
Total favor 65
Total oppose 29
Moderate Ideology (N=25)
Strongly favor 60%
Somewhat favor 17
Somewhat oppose 7
Strongly oppose 7
Don’t know 9
Total favor 77
Total oppose 14
Conservative Ideology (N=31)
Strongly favor 36%
Somewhat favor 31
Somewhat oppose 8
Strongly oppose 19
Don’t know 6
Total favor 67
Total oppose 27
The poll has an important caveat: its small sample size. However, it was conducted by a respected national polling firm with decades of experience and lots of clients around the country. Furthermore, its results are consistent: every demographic asked favored ending MoCo’s status as an alcohol control jurisdiction. Democrats and Republicans have many disagreements, as do liberals and conservatives. But in MoCo, they agree on one thing:
End the Monopoly.
