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Gas Prices Expected To Stay High Through Election

By: Marti Johnson // October 4, 2012
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Gas prices aren't expected to take their usual campaign dive this year, AAA Mid-Atlantic reports.
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Gas prices aren't expected to take their usual campaign dive this year, AAA Mid-Atlantic reports.

Historically, gas prices drop in the weeks before a presidential election. But drivers suffering record-high gas prices in the D.C. may not get a break this campaign season.

In 2008, the price of gas was $4.11 per gallon in July, but by Election Day, it had fallen to a little under $2 per gallon. Although that was a particularly big drop, that's what gas prices have done for decades, until now, according to AAA  Mid-Atlantic.

"We've never seen gas prices this radioactive in any national election year  going back to since we've been keeping records, and that goes back to the 1980s," says John Townsend of AAA.

In fact, the price of gas has been rising every day for the past five weeks, with the average price of a gallon of gas nationally now at $3.78, according to AAA. Fuel in Maryland averages $3.71 per gallon, and Virginia's gas costs $3.61 on average. The District has and the highest prices in the area with an average of $3.90 per gallon. 

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