When Sen. Philip C. Jimeno invited Dels. Joan Cadden and Mary M. Rosso to his Pasadena insurance agency one day last week to chat about campaigning in a district redrawn to stretch across the Key Bridge and beyond, the talk turned to mass mailings and yard signs.
Within a couple of hours, the three incumbents were wondering whether they had wasted their time. That's when the Maryland Court of Appeals stunned politicians throughout the state by throwing out the governor's redistricting plan.
"We were talking about [campaign] signs," Jimeno later said. "We need signs. But where will we put them?"
Across the county, the campaign plans of dozens of candidates will be on hold until boundaries are reset.
"Everyone has concerns," said Del. Mary Ann Love, a Glen Burnie Democrat and chairwoman of the county's House delegation. "It's like we are starting over. We are starting over."
But once the initial shock of the court decision wore off, members of the county's General Assembly delegation expressed hope that the court would undo some of the governor's handiwork and return the county's district map to, as Love put it, "the way it was."
Before the most recent round of redistricting, all but one of Anne Arundel County's political districts were contained within the county's boundaries. The map proposed by the governor and approved by the General Assembly included four districts split between Anne Arundel and Calvert, Howard, Prince George's or Baltimore counties.
Elected officials were disappointed when Glendening moved Maryland City, Russett and Jessup from District 32 into District 13, which lies mostly in Howard County. His plan also split the Gambrills area between District 32, which lies wholly in Anne Arundel, and District 23, the majority of which is in Prince George's. District 31 was expanded across the Key Bridge to include 9,000 residents of southeastern Baltimore County.
"I welcome any opportunity for the county to be made whole again," said County Executive Janet S. Owens, a Millersville Democrat.
State election officials said last week that they need the map from the Court of Appeals by July 1 at the latest or elections might be delayed. Carole Streeting, deputy election director for Anne Arundel County, added that her staff might work overtime to get ready for the September primary election.
"I am concerned that, depending on when we get the information, we will be able to complete our end of the work," she said Friday. "We might have to hire extra people and work Saturdays because we would have to get the work done."
Streeting said that if the court's map is drastically different from the one proposed by Glendening, her office could be forced to set up new polling places and find new election judges in a hurry.
"There could be a ripple effect," she said.
Of all the county's elected officials, few have been as seriously affected by the redistricting controversy as Jimeno, who has represented the 31st District, which includes Brooklyn Park and Pasadena, in the state Senate since 1985.
But when the legislature extended the district to include a chunk of southeastern Baltimore County, Jimeno faced a primary run against a longtime friend, Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr.
Stone saw his Dundalk district diced up and the precinct where he lives attached to Jimeno's.
The legislature's longest-serving member, Stone had decided not to run for re-election. But after the court decision, he said he might do so after all.
As Jimeno began to campaign for re-election on his friend's turf, he took solace in one fact: He lives near the Key Bridge. Jimeno said he has traversed the Patapsco River regularly for the past several months to attend volunteer fire company parades and Eagle Scout award ceremonies.
"People expect you to be there," he said.
Del. John R. Leopold, a Pasadena Republican, was a plaintiff in one of 14 lawsuits filed in an effort to rescind the governor's map. Leopold, who also represents the 31st District, called the governor's map "most egregious," especially for residents of Baltimore County.
"In campaigning there, the single most obvious concern of those residents was the very palpable anger they felt about the redistricting," Leopold said. "They would have represented 8 percent of the entire district. I was saying to everyone I met, 'I will treat you the same way as anyone in Anne Arundel County.' "
Leopold said he worried that it would be hard to meet the demands of constituents in two counties, even if they shared basic political views. As a delegate, he would be expected to attend chamber of commerce meetings in both counties and spend time meeting with two school boards, two county councils and two county executives.
"It is hard to juggle that kind of calendar," he said. "There were already some conflicts."