Plan would put Lynch, Keating in same Congressional district

U.S. Reps. William Keating and Stephen Lynch would be thrown into the same Congressional district and a new incumbent-free district based in southeastern Massachusetts would stretch from the Cape and Islands across Plymouth and Bristol County to Fall River, under a draft Congressional redistricting plan released Monday.

The proposal would also create a stronger majority-minority district around Boston, running north into Somerville and south and into Milton and Randolph. Western Massachusetts communities represented by U.S. Rep. John Olver would be split between two expanded districts currently home to U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern and Richard Neal.

Rep. Michael Moran (D-Brighton), co-chair of the special Joint Committee on Redistricting with Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, unveiled the map, which would create an incumbent-free district based in southeastern Massachusetts and linking parts of the South Shore and Cape Cod with South Coast cities likes New Bedford and Taunton.

The district represented by Lynch would grow south out of Boston into northern South Shore communities now represented by freshman Democrat Rep. William Keating, pitting the Quincy Democrat against Lynch, who lives in South Boston. Under the plan, Lynch’s current district would extend into Boston’s North End and to the south into Quincy, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, Scituate and Hull, while losing Needham.

Keating, who beat Sandwich Republican Jeff Perry to win his seat, could avoid a showdown with his Democratic colleague should he decide to move to the summer home he owns in Bourne, but the drafters of the plan said they were unsure of Keating’s intentions. Keating, a former Norfolk County district attorney who lived in Sharon while serving in the state Legislature, had not responded to the draft plan as of late Monday afternoon.

“That’s a decision that he’s going to have to make. We drew these districts because we thought it made sense,” Moran said during an interview Monday afternoon.

Moran said the committee plans to have public comment period on the map until Thursday at 2 p.m. when the full committee will vote on the plan. He said the House and Senate expect to take up the bill next Tuesday.

The review period offers a shorter window than the one afforded lawmakers and advocates when the committee released state House and Senate redistricting plans. It appears the House and Senate are trying to complete the process before Nov. 16 when the Legislature recesses from formal sessions until after the New Year.

Gov. Deval Patrick said late Monday he had only glanced at the draft map but noted his Berkshires and Milton homes would fall into different districts under the proposed map.

While the new district in southeastern Massachusetts would include New Bedford, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the Newton Democrat would retain a portion of Fall River out of respect for the work Frank has done over the years for the fishing industry on the South Coast, according to Moran. Fall River is currently shared by Frank and McGovern. Frank would also keep Taunton.

“Barney Frank has been a real champion for the people down there,” Moran said.

The current Eighth Congressional district, represented by U.S. Michael Capuano and encompassing large parts of Cambridge, Somerville and Boston, will become a solid majority-minority district, fulfilling one of the stated goals of Legislature’s Special Committee on Redistricting.

The district’s minority population would grow under the proposal from 52 percent minority to 56.6 percent, in part by extending south into parts of Milton and all of Randolph, and capturing Everett from the district now represented by U.S. Rep. Edward Markey as well as minority-dominated precincts in Boston represented now by Lynch.

Markey’s current district would pick up parts of Cambridge, and the district represented by Lynch, of South Boston, would pick up Boston’s North End neighborhood while swooping far to the south and then wrapping westward around Randolph and Milton and up into Norwood, Westwood and Dedham.

“This is the strongest majority-minority district we’ve ever had in the Commonwealth,” Moran said, noting that the voting-age minority population in the newly drawn district will increase from 48 percent to 51.8 percent.

Kevin Peterson, the executive director of the Massachusetts Black Empowerment Coalition, said he was “pleased” with the outcome, suggesting the committee held to its promise of listening to advocacy groups and including their recommendation that minority communities in Boston and to the south be linked with the existing majority-minority district.

“We are looking forward to a situation in the next five years when a person of color will be elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in state history, adding an important voice and much needed diversity to the delegation,” Peterson said.

Slow population growth over the past decade - reflected in the 2010 Census – has forced Massachusetts lawmakers to draw a new district map jettisoning one of the state’s 10 Congressional seats and creating the possibility that two Democratic incumbents would be forced to run against each other to retain their seats.

Because of the consolidation, the remaining nine Congressional districts each needed to pick up, on average, roughly 70,000 people in population. Moran said the districts, as drawn in the proposal, achieve 0 percent deviation from the ideal 727,514 residents, with six districts hitting the exact mark and three with one additional person.

U.S. Rep. John Olver, an Amherst Democrat representing the 1st Congressional district, altered the dynamics of the process two weeks ago when he announced that after 20 years in Congress he would retire at the end of the term.

Olver’s decision to leave Congress after 2012 created the possibility that the Legislature could approve a map protecting all remaining nine incumbents from squaring off against a colleague in next year’s election. However, incumbency protection is only one of many criteria lawmakers use when drawing up new district maps.

“It solved some of our problems,” Moran said, pointing out that it did not create an obvious solution to the population growth in southeastern Massachusetts.

Under the plan, the district currently represented by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and centered in Springfield would be expanded to include all of Berkshire County, the hills towns in northern Franklin County and parts of Hampshire County, while the 3rd Congressional district represented by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, of Worcester, would grow westward to include swaths of Worcester, Hampshire and Franklin counties, including Northampton and Amherst.

According to Moran, 64 percent of the Worcester-based seat - currently known as the 3rd Congressional district - would be comprised of new communities, while the 47 percent of Neal’s 2nd Congressional district would be new cities and towns.

U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, a Lowell Democrat and the only woman in the delegation, retains the Essex County cities of Lawrence and Haverhill in the plan, while her district would fan out west along the New Hampshire border and grab Fitchburg and Lunenburg and towns like Gardner, Pepperell and Clinton currently represented by Olver.

Tsongas had been fighting to keep intact the Fifth Congressional district, which currently includes the Merrimack Valley mill cities of Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill, and avoid ceding any of those cities to the Sixth Congressional district.

Tsongas, under the plan, loses the towns of Billerica, Tewksbury and part of Andover, while also picking up Marlborough. The district currently represented by U.S. Rep. John Tierney would pick up the three communities lost by Tsongas.

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