Income inequality resonates as an issue among Democratic voters – Capital News Service
By DAN RUSSO, MAGGIE DEBLASIS, and LEXIE SCHAPITL
Capital News Service
WASHINGTON — When Freddie Gray, 25, was pronounced dead on April 19 of last year, the news angered and frustrated the mourning citizens of Baltimore, causing some neighborhoods to spill onto the streets in protest.
The chaos and riots that enveloped the city catapulted Gray’s death to national prominence and exposed longstanding issues of chronic unemployment and lack of economic opportunity that exist in the city, according to state Sen. Catherine Pugh, D-Baltimore.
“One community can’t be wealthy and the other community poor and you feel that justice prevails,” Pugh said of conditions in Baltimore. “It just doesn’t work that way.” She is a candidate for mayor in the April 26 primary.
Among Democratic voters in Tuesday’s presidential primary, income inequality has emerged as a central issue. And it is a regular debating point between the party’s two White House hopefuls, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Benjamin Orr, executive director of the Maryland Center for Economic Policy, said income inequality has received more attention this election cycle because the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest in the state and across the country has gotten worse.
“There are still two Marylands: one high-income and one living in poverty,” Orr said.
