Politically, Maryland may be more blue than purple. However, when it comes to transit this election season, our neighbors to the north are turning a lovely shade of lavender. The Washington Post reports today that the Purple Line, the proposed transit link between New Carrollton and Bethesda, has emerged as a key issue in the Maryland gubernatorial race.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, the Democratic candidate for governor, described the project as one of his top transportation priorities at his first pro-Purple Line rally yesterday, organized by the Coalition to Build the Inner Purple Line. In addition to O’Malley, more than 110 local, state, and U.S. candidates running for office in Maryland have endorsed the Purple Line. The supporters have further called for the project to be built as a light-rail system rather than the rapid bus line that current Maryland Governor Robert Erhlich has proposed. O’Malley stated that he supports a combination of above- and below-ground light rail.

Despite significant support among voters in influential Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties, the project has taken a back seat in the Ehrlich Administration to other projects like the multi-billion dollar Inter-County Connector. O’Malley questioned Governor Ehrlich’s real intentions toward the Purple Line, calling him “very practiced in the politics of division…”. Ehrlich has repeatedly expressed his support for the project. However, after being dismissed for anti-gay remarks, a former Ehrlich administration transit official publicly accused the governor of working to scuttle the project with a “…prolonged attempt to obfuscate, alter, study and delay the project so as not to face up to the fact that, without a tax increase, the project is underfunded”. Whether or not this is true, we would like to see where Mayor O’Malley plans to come up with the money for the project, which could cost up to $1.6 billion to design and construct.