'Kooky' or not, D.C. retrocession has its supporters

Spring. Time for the return of the robins, cherry blossoms - and talk of returning most of the District to Maryland.

This year, the perennial discussion is led by a new group headed by a former government insider with ties to both the District and Capitol Hill.

The Committee for the Capital City has a new twist on the old pitch about remedying taxation-without-representation: They are hoping to persuade Marylanders to join their crusade, arguing that becoming home to the capital city could be an economic boost for the state.

Retrocession, as it is called, would be a boon to all sides, argues Lawrence H. Mirel, the committee's president, in a 20-page report outlining the group's position.

D.C. residents would gain representation in Congress, and the city government would no longer be saddled with the costs of running prisons and other state tasks, says Mr. Mirel, a former attorney to the D.C. Council who also worked on Capitol Hill and is now a lobbyist for the District of Columbia Insurance Federation.

For Maryland, becoming the home of the capital city would bring more tourism, leading to an economic boost to the state, proponents say.

The group has no specific timetable, but hopes to gather signatures on a petition to present to Congress showing there is support for such a scheme, said Dee Ann McIntyre, the committee's spokeswoman.

But there's little interest among the parties who have the power to make retrocession a reality.

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, Virginia Republican and chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on the District, rejects the idea as "kooky," Miss McIntyre concedes.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who gets no vote in Congress, prefers her proposal to make city residents partially exempt from federal income taxes.

And a spokesman for Maryland's Democratic Party said it's not even "on our radar screen."

But the 20 or so activists who make up the committee - including Clayton A. Mitchell, son of former Maryland House Speaker Clayton Mitchell - are getting used to that reaction, and are determined to get city residents and Marylanders to talk about it seriously, Miss McIntyre said.

"That goes along with the blank stares you get at first," she said. "It's so abstract."

The idea is not a new one - it was first raised in 1803, just two years after Maryland and Virginia ceded land to the federal government to create a federal city, according to a history compiled by the committee.

In 1846, Congress and Virginia agreed to retrocede the former Virginia portion of the District back to Virginia, creating what is now Arlington County and part of Alexandria.

More recently, Rep. Ralph Regula, Ohio Republican, has introduced a bill for the last three sessions of Congress to return to Maryland most of the District, except for a small federal enclave. Those bills have died quietly, and a spokeswoman said there has been no action on the most recent bill, which Mr. Regula introduced in February 1995.

Last spring, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, researched a plan that would give D.C. residents full voting representation in Congress as Marylanders, without making the city part of the state. That proposal would make the nation's capital Maryland's 9th Congressional District for federal voting purposes only, with D.C. residents electing a full-fledged member of the House and casting votes for Maryland's two Senate seats.

Mrs. Norton, Maryland's Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening and the Maryland Republican Party balked, and no formal proposal was ever introduced.

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