While Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley are making the proposed Purple Line a key issue in their quest to secure votes from Washington suburbanites, the state’s top economic development official said on Monday the proposed 20-mile extension of Metro’s Green Line to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport should be the top priority.

“That would be my No. 1 choice,” Aris Melissaratos, Maryland’s secretary of business and economic development, said on Monday. “Not only is it crucial for the airport and business along the [U.S.] Route 1 corridor, but it would be a driver for full integration of both systems.”

With Virginia making progress on its proposed $4 billion Metro extension to Dulles International Airport, Melissaratos said state officials — who approved a $1 million study in March — are feeling the pressure to move forward.

Yet in the past three months, the Green Line project has garnered little attention in the gubernatorial, state and local races. Candidates have instead focused on the so-called Purple Line, a 14-mile link between Bethesda and New Carrollton, which has emerged as the area’s most hotly contested election issue.

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More than 115 candidates and incumbents for state, local and federal offices have signed a pledge supporting the transitway as a light-rail system. Transportation Secretary Robert Flannagan has said the state is exploring whether it should be built as a light-rail system or as a rapid-transit bus system. Depending on the mode, the projects’ costs have been estimated between $200 million and $2.5 billion.

Several top candidates in state and local races have said privately they believe the Green Line extension likely is to be completed before the Purple Line simply because the pot of state and federal dollars is relatively limited and the Green Line extension is more of a “state project.”

The Purple Line likely would battle for state and federal funding with other key projects, including the proposed extension of the Red Line in Baltimore and the Green Line extension.

Melissaratos said all three projects should be top priorities, but said the Green Line extension holds the most economic potential.

mrupert@dcexaminer.com