Dueling redistricting maps, pressers set for Monday

U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano’s Congressional district would be eliminated and the lines of State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz’s district would be moved out of Dorchester and Roxbury and into Brookline, under redistricting maps a group of minority activists will push on Monday.

The group, the Mass Black Empowerment Coalition, is holding an 11:30 a.m. presser in Room 167 at the State House on Monday.

According to the group, their proposal for a new Congressional district, “incumbent free,” will include Brockton, Cambridge, Milton, Randolph and Chelsea, and minority communities in Boston.

The group, which is meeting with the Massachusetts Black and Latino Caucus before the presser, will also call for a new state Senate district in Lawrence, and new state representative districts in Brockton, Chelsea and Randolph.

But they won’t be the only group with a press conference and a map to show off: The Drawing Democracy Coalition, which includes the Boston Workers Alliance and the Mass. Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition, will release its own proposal for Congressional districts on the State House steps at noon.

A special committee of state lawmakers is tasked with redrawing the state’s political boundaries – at the Congressional, state Senate and state House levels – and will hold its final public hearing at the State House at 3 p.m. Monday. Because the U.S. Census shows Massachusetts has not kept up with the population growth of other parts of the country, the Bay State is set to lose one of its ten Congressional seats.

Chang-Diaz is the vice chair of the Senate side of the committee. State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, a Dorchester Democrat, and Rep. Byron Rushing, a Roxbury Democrat, are also members of the joint committee. Rep. Forry is married to Reporter managing editor Bill Forry.

The joint committee is chaired by state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst) and state Rep. Michael Moran (D-Brighton).

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