Proposed New MA House Map Protects Incumbents

MASSACHUSETTS — Incumbent protection is the name of the game in the proposed Massachusetts redistricting state legislators introduced Monday.

The new map, required following the recent release of the 2020 census, makes only marginal changes, keeping the core of the state's nine House districts unchanged.

All nine districts are held by Democrats.

There are shifts on the edges of all nine districts, necessary to adjust for population changes. The most notable change in the new map is the First District, the western-most one, stretching further east to keep its population share up.

This year's proposed redistricting is in stark contrast to the redistricting following the 2010 census, when the state lost one congressional seat and lawmakers radically changed the map, putting two incumbents into the same district.

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The new map was introduced by the state legislature's Special Joint Committee on Redistricting, which will hold a public hearing Nov. 9.

The draft redistricting also moves Fall River, a heavily Portuguese-American city, entirely into the Fourth District, represented by first-term Rep. Jake Auchincloss. The city was previously split between the Fourth District and Rep. William Keating's Ninth District.

Auchincloss was quick to praise the move, saying he was "thrilled that all of Fall River will be in my district."

But that aspect of the map drew criticism from the Drawing Democracy Coalition, an advocacy group that had called for Fall River and New Bedford to be grouped in the same district. New Bedford, which also has a high concentration of Portuguese-Americans, is in Keating's district, in both the current and proposed maps.

"While we’re glad that the Redistricting Committee’s proposed map makes Fall River whole, it also misses a critical opportunity to better ensure that the immigrant, working-class communities of Fall River and New Bedford are united and empowered politically to elect candidates of their choice," Drawing Democracy Steering Committee member Dax Crocker said in a statement. "We are incredibly disappointed that the legislature did not listen to the voices of the people of Fall River and New Bedford, and we urge them to reconsider."

The complete proposed map, maps of individual districts and the current map are all available from the redistricting committee.