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Prince George's County delegates said Monday they plan to appeal to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) directly in hopes of getting a prominent share of road stimulus money in light of dismal results so far this year.

"It's very evident and clear that this is about politics," said Del. James W. Hubbard (D-Dist. 23A) of Bowie. "We need to remind him where the votes are coming from in this state."

Hubbard's call to lobby O'Malley directly came after he and three other delegates — Del. Aisha N. Braveboy (D-Dist. 25) of Mitchellville, Anne Healey (D-Dist. 22) of Hyattsville and Tawanna P. Gaines (D-Dist. 22) of Berwyn Heights — made little progress on securing roads funding for county projects during a discussion Monday with state highway administrator Neil J. Pedersen.

Throughout the hour-long discussion, Pedersen said the county's top projects didn't meet federal guidelines since some of the county roads could not begin construction by the March 2010 deadline for the stimulus money.

"The last thing we want as a state is to lose our [funding]," he said. "If we don't have all our money [spent], we'll have it go to other states. What we want is to get the [unspent] money from other states."

County officials asked for more input from the state on how to meet their requirements, listing the face-to-face meeting with the highway administrator as a big step forward.

"Today's the first time I've seen this," said Hubbard, holding up a list of project requirements Pedersen gave at the beginning of the meeting. "This whole thing seems so fluid, like it's changed on a regular basis."

"Well, it has been changing on a regular basis," Pedersen replied.

Federal requirements on readiness to proceed and whether roads with existing federal funding could be included all changed as the stimulus bill went through Congress last month, Pedersen said.

A spokesman for O'Malley said all local projects will receive consideration before the second phase of stimulus money is announced later this month.

"That's obviously our hope," spokesman Shaun Adamec said.

Prince George's County has been jockeying for a good portion of the $2.1 billion Maryland received for roads from the $787 billion federal stimulus package Congress passed last month. Maryland announced about $365 million would be distributed for projects late last month and plans to give out another $620 million in the second phase.

County officials had originally given the state a list of projects worth $400 million for possible funding, including a $66 million road improvement near the Branch Avenue Metro Station and $130 million for a new interchange at Suitland Parkway and Pennsylvania Avenue near Andrews Air Force Base.

The county also had asked for $7.7 million for passenger bus replacements. Only $1 million from the county list was pledged by the state when state officials announced fund distributions two weeks ago. Baltimore city received $65 million for bus replacements and Montgomery County got $2 million in that round, delegates noted.

"We believe that we've been inequitably received [on our requests]," Braveboy said.

Pedersen was unable to say whether any of the county's priorities will be restored in the second round. Several big-ticket projects don't appear far enough along to qualify for the March 2010 deadline, he said.

"We've been told it would take two years [on Suitland Parkway]," he said.

Pedersen said the state did not fund any county's local projects in the first phase, focusing instead on immediate paving and work on state roads, as well as buying new buses for systems across the state. About $38 million of work will be done on state-owned roads in Prince George's County.

"We had to look at the projects … closest to being ready to go. We focused on what we could get out of the gate right away," said Pedersen, who said the decision to use the money on state roads was made by the governor.

Local projects will be considered when funds are distributed again later this month, he said.

"We'll use the second phase to look at some of these balancing issues," Pedersen said.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.