ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s official song may include a line about “Northern scum” left over from the Civil War era, but the state isn’t feeling so Southern anymore.
Though Marylanders live just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, their attitudes and even their accents straddle that border. These days, leaders feel they have more in common with states to the north.
In one sign of the shift, lawmakers successfully petitioned to move from the Southern Region of the Council of State Governments to the Eastern Region, where they will trade ideas with officials from Pennsylvania, New York and other states they consider more like-minded.
“I just don’t think we’re as Southern as people used to think,” said state Sen. Catherine Pugh, a Baltimore Democrat.
It’s unusual for states to switch regions in the 77-year-old council, which provides a forum for state officials to share ideas. The last time was when Missouri switched from the Midwestern Region to the Southern Region in 1994.
Diane Schwallenberg, who has lived in the Annapolis area all of her 53 years, said she feels more Southern because of the state capital’s laid-back waterside atmosphere. But she said she has noticed a change over the years: “Some of the new people that come in — not the real, true Annapolitans in particular — but people that have come in, are kind of preppy and all,” she said.
