Disappointed but not defeated, Bowie’s mayor says he and the City Council will keep fighting to change the governor’s proposed redistricting map that would change how the Bowie area elects its legislative District 23 delegates to the General Assembly for the next 10 years.

Bowie Mayor G. Frederick Robinson met Tuesday with House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis to seek Busch’s support to change the proposed map released Jan. 11 by the governor.

“I left with a sense that he understood and was willing to look at it, but he didn’t make any commitments,” Robinson said about his meeting with Busch.

Busch was not immediately available for comment Wednesday morning. A spokeswoman, Alexandra Hughes, said that to change the map a bill would have to be introduced and assigned to the Rules committee with an alternative map.

The committee would then have to vote the legislation out to the floor of the General Assembly.

If nothing is done, the governor’s map takes effect automatically within 45 days from Jan. 11, on Feb. 24, halfway through the 90-day session.

Robinson said Tuesday he has asked District 23A Del. Geraldine Valentino-Smith to draft legislations in hopes of convincing legislators in the General Assembly to change the governor’s map.

Robinson said he and the council are concerned that the proposed redistricting map would reduce Bowie’s influence in Annapolis because of the way it keeps and reconfigures subdistricts 23A and 23B.

The governor’s map, which is similar to the map released Dec. 16 by his Redistricting Advisory Committee, shrinks 23A in half, reducing the number of delegates from two to one, and doubles 23B, increasing the number of delegates from one to two.

Robinson said the result is that Bowie residents, some of whom live in 23A and some in 23B, becomes less than 50 percent of the total population in each subdistrict, making it less likely that a resident of the city would get elected to represent Bowie’s priorities in the General Assembly.

Robinson did not have the current resident percentages immediately available Tuesday night, and a staffer with the numbers was not immediately available Wednesday morning.

The solution, Robinson says, is to allow all three District 23 delegates to run at-large in District 23, enabling someone from Bowie to represent the city as a whole.

The subdistricts were created in 2002 to improve the chances that a black resident could be elected in 23B, which was accomplished with the election of Del. Marvin Holmes (D) of Kettering, said Robinson, who argues that the subdistricts are no longer necessary.

Robinson said he has the support of District 23A delegates Valentino-Smith and James Hubbard, both Democrats who live in Bowie, but not the support of Holmes in 23B.

Holmes said he asked the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee to keep 23B a single-delegate district but that the committee and the governor chose to redraw the subdistricts.

O’Malley’s chief legislative officer Joe Bryce did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email request for comment about the reasons for keeping and reconfiguring 23A and 23B.

“There’s no rationale for what’s happened,” said Hubbard about the governor’s map, which keeps the subdistricts.

Under the proposed map, District 27, led by Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach, would expand further south in Calvert County.

The result is the southern edge of District 23 would now stretch south past Upper Marlboro, shifting Del. Joseph E. Vallario Jr. (D) of Upper Marlboro out of Miller’s District 27 into 23B along with Holmes.

Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

To view the governor’s proposed map presented to the General Assembly on Jan. 11, visit planning.maryland.gov/redistricting/2010/legiDist.shtml.

On the website is an interactive map that enables residents to type in an address to locate his or her district.

Residents may also compare existing 2002 boundaries, the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee’s recommended boundaries released Dec. 16, and the governor’s proposed map released Jan. 11.

vterhune@gazette.net