Local Officials Speculate on Congressional Re-Districting

New congressional lines will be drawn before next April's primary elections and there could be some changes coming to the district that includes Maryland's Eastern Shore.

On Friday, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley said the governor should soon announce who will serve on the special commission faced with taking the 2010 U.S. census data for Maryland and using it to draft new districts for the U.S. House of Representatives and the state legislature.

State Sen. Richard Colburn, R-37-Mid-Shore, said the congressional redistricting most likely will be presented to the General Assembly in a special session tentatively planned for mid-October. Colburn said those districts must be approved with plenty of lead time before the April primaries.

Colburn said the state legislative districts will be considered separately since they will not affect an election until 2014. He said those district plans will be introduced at the start of the regular 2012 General Assembly session, which will kick off in January.

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