State lawmakers opposed to Gov. Martin O’Malley’s legislative redistricting map are upset that their alternative proposals may not be considered.

Five alternative plans put forward by House lawmakers have not been scheduled for committee hearings, and O’Malley’s plan will take effect Feb. 25 unless one of the other proposals is approved.

“There should be hearings for all the alternatives, and they all should be considered,” said Del. Susan W. Krebs (R-Dist. 9B) of Eldersburg, who opposes a boundary change in O’Malley’s plan that moves a chunk of Carroll County to Howard or Frederick districts. “We believe our plans should have the courtesy of a hearing.”

No alternative plans have been presented in the Senate.

House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby said Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis said Thursday he was not inclined to hold hearings on the alternatives.

A spokesman for Busch’s office said hearings were unlikely because there is no consensus on an alternative plan and the House’s time could be better spent on issues such as balancing the budget.

The Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee held 12 public hearings for redistricting input and took public comments into consideration, tweaking parts of the original map, the spokesman said.

Still, O’Malley’s map drew fire from both sides of the aisle after its introduction Jan. 11.

Democrats said the plan disenfranchised minority voters because it does not establish a Hispanic-majority district in Montgomery County and didn’t create enough majority-black districts.

Republicans said the map showed little regard for city and county boundaries and GOP voters were so tightly packed into districts that they would be unable to gain more seats in the General Assembly.

Even opponents of O’Malley’s plan said the busy nature of the session has diverted some of their attention from the redistricting issue.

Elbridge James, political action chairman for Maryland NAACP, said his organization has been focused mostly on potential budget cuts and will wait until a final map is approved to decide whether legal action is necessary. “We may have to have a map that we will just live with,” Elbridge said.

Krebs said the legislative agenda has been crowded early on with budget issues and same-sex marriage, shunting other issues to the side.

“Right now, unfortunately, the entire leadership and the governor are entirely focused on the marriage issue,” she said.

O’Donnell said hearings on all the proposals should be held in the name of open government.

“The way to be transparent in this would be to have hearings on the governor’s plan and all the alternative plans and have an up or down vote on all of them,” he said.

During the last redistricting process 10 years ago, the governor’s plan was adopted by the General Assembly without debate on alternative plans.

Still, others are looking toward future redistricting.

Four House bills and two Senate bills have been filed that would change the redistricting process in future years. No hearing dates have been scheduled for any of the bills.

dgaines@gazette.net