State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg: It's a big factor that Western Massachusetts has only about 13 percent of the vote at the Statehouse.
BOSTON -- A debate over congressional redistricting is entering a new phase on Beacon Hill, following the completion of public hearings around the state that did little to allay fears about Western Massachusetts losing a congressional seat.
Leaders of the Legislature's Special Joint Committee on Redistricting will now be charged with drawing a new map with nine seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Massachusetts must relinquish one of its current 10 seats because of population shifts documented in the 2010 census.
Some are deeply concerned that U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, an Amherst Democrat, could be the odd man out and may see his sprawling 1st congressional district melded into the 2nd congressional district of U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal of Springfield.
"I think Olver's seat is going to be eliminated," said Betty Agin of Springfield, a community activist who attended five of the committee's hearings and belongs to a coalition seeking to save the western region's two seats. "That's what Boston wants. Boston is protecting Boston. Boston is not concerned about Western Massachusetts."
Congressman John Olver, left talks to Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick before a celebration of Olver's twenty years in office at a function at the Log Cabin in Holyoke last month.During 13 public hearings, including three in Western Massachusetts and a final meeting in Boston on Monday, members of the redistricting committee listened to 35 hours of testimony from 410 people and accepted written comments from 115 others, according to committee statistics.
Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, the Senate chairman of the committee, said he and other local legislators are pushing to keep two congressional districts based in Western Massachusetts, but they could be outnumbered when the Legislature votes some time around Thanksgiving. It's a big factor that Western Massachusetts only has about 13 percent of the vote at the Statehouse, he said.
"There are many more votes in eastern Massachusetts than in Western Massachusetts," said Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat.
He said the redistricting committee plans to write a new congressional map and release it some time this fall for public comment. Rosenberg said the goal is for the Legislature to approve the map before Thanksgiving.
State Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg meets with the Republican editorial board in 2008.Rosenberg said that 90 percent of the testimony during the 13 hearings focused on congressional seats. People from each region of the state said their district is special and needs to be conserved, Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said he and others are arguing there is enough population to support the current three congressional seats west of Route 495 -- one based in Worcester, one in Springfield and one for the small towns and cities, agriculture and forestry that currently distinguish Olver's 107-community district.
Rosenberg said Olver's district and the two others west of Route 495 are each "a community of interest" with common social and economic traits that should be kept intact to ensure effective and proper representation in Washington.
The 10 current members of the state's all-Democratic delegation in the U.S. House are all planning to run for re-election including Olver and Neal.
In an interview last month in Holyoke at a fundraiser to mark his 20 years in Congress, Olver said that he would also need to consider "in the long run" whether his wife's illness might affect his decision to run for re-election. Olver announced he would run for re-election in December, several months before he and his wife, Rose, a professor at Amherst College, learned that she had contracted ovarian cancer.
Rep. Michael Moran of Boston is co-chairman of the Legislature's Special Joint Committee on Redistricting.Rosenberg and Rep. Michael J. Moran, a Boston Democrat who is chair for the state House of Representatives on the redistricting committee, each logged 1,254 round-trip miles traveling from the Statehouse to the 12 public hearings held outside Boston.
Moran said he and Rosenberg may meet again in private meetings with each of the state's U.S. House members before producing a new map.
Moran said some people offered compelling arguments for keeping two congressional districts in Western Massachusetts, but others advanced effective reasons for retaining the seat of freshman U.S. Rep. William R. Keating, a Quincy Democrat whose district is also a target for consolidation.
Keating's 10th congressional seat is special because of its length of shoreline, its high elderly population and common economic interests such as commercial fishing and tourism, supporters have said.
Moran cited the agonizing decisions that lie ahead for legislators in what could be a bruising debate over congressional redistricting.
"This is not a process that I am particularly having a great time with," Moran said. "But it is something we have to do."
The committee must produce four maps -- one apiece for the U.S. House, the Massachusetts Senate, the state House of Representatives and the Governor's Council. Each might be separate pieces of legislation, except the Governor's Council could be included in a bill with the 40 seats in the Senate, Moran said.
Corinne Wingard of Agawam, shown at a 2009 public hearing, says it is common sense to keep the seats of U.S. Reps. John Olver of Amherst and Richard Neal of Springfield.Corinne M. Wingard of Agawam, a member of the Democratic State Committee, said it is "basic common sense" to assure that Olver and Neal retain separate congressional seats based in Western Massachusetts.
Neal, first elected in 1988, and Olver, in 1991, are currently ranked No. 3 and No. 4 respectively in seniority in the state's 10-member delegation in the U.S. House.
Wingard said it would be against the best interest of the state to consolidate the two congressional seats in Western Massachusetts. "In Washington, the more seniority congress people have, the more power they have," she said.