Tewksbury Split Into 3 State House Districts Under New Map

TEWKSBURY, MA — Tewksbury will have three state representatives under the redistricting plan passed Oct. 21, but that's not as good as it sounds, town officials said.

Select Board members complained at two recent meetings about the redistricting proposal, which has the town split into three districts. Rather than increasing the town's voice on Beacon Hill, the plan will reduce the town's voice, because Tewksbury residents will be a minority of voters in all three districts, officials said.

The plan, which has Tewksbury share the 19th Middlesex district with Wilmington, the 17th Middlesex with part of Lowell and the 18th Essex with part of Andover, passed the house nearly unanimously Oct. 21. The state senate approved its own plan Wednesday.

The 19th Middlesex District is currently represented by Dave Robertson, the 18th Essex by Tram Nguyen and the 17th Middlesex by Vanna Howard.

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"The town of Tewksbury will not have the majority of voters in any of the districts," Town Manager Richard Montuori told the Select Board on Oct. 19.

"In my opinion, it disenfranchises many people in Tewksbury," Select Board Member Todd Johnson said. "To me, that's diluting our interests on Beacon Hill."

Johnson pointed to the Lowell district in particular as a potential issue, with the city and a suburb like Tewksbury having different priorities.

"There is potential for no representation on numerous issues," he said.

Johnson and other board members underlined that they have confidence in the current delegation, but expressed concern about the future.

"I am disappointed," Member Anne Marie Stronach said. "It makes one of our residents less likely to become one of those representatives in the future... It's important to have people in our community voicing for us."

Board Member Jayne Wellman called it a "flawed process at the state level."

"If we're a minority district in each of our districts, our voice isn't as strong," she said.

The plan also required the town to split one of its precincts, which will cost the town money in the election process, Town Clerk Denise Graffeo said.

At a follow-up meeting Wednesday morning, the Board passed a new precinct map, with 8 precincts of about 3,900 residents. The Board again discussed the redistricting.

Montuori said he had spoken to the town's delegation and was told "there's really nothing they can do."

"Following the publication of the map Rep. Nguyen and I asked Rep. [Frank] Moran, the Chair, to see what we could do to mitigate the impact of the proposal and worked on it every day," Robertson told Patch. "Unfortunately there was no solution that adheres to the constitutional and legal requirements of what defines a district. Each alternative had a cascading impact on other districts that ran afoul of these and would have been objected to, or produced results that were not feasible such as having a district population 5% larger than other districts - or even more.

"I really am saddened that I will no longer be directly representing a precinct that I interned, then staffed, then represented for over a decade. I’ll still be fighting for them, even indirectly, and will always be willing to help people who have an issue from that part of town regardless as the roads, schools, and other community concerns don’t magically end at a precinct line," Robertson said.

The state house district map is available here. The Oct. 19 and Oct. 27 meeting videos are both available from TewksburyTV.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.