Dear Neighbors and Friends, 

I am writing to let you know that the House and Senate proposed new redistricting maps.  You can find copies of the maps here. There is a one-week public comment period on the maps that started today.  The Joint Committee on Redistricting is holding a public hearing on Friday, October 15, 2021 at 1 PM.  Here is the link if you would like to sign up to testify or just watch.

I entered redistricting hoping that my district would not change.  I learned after the Census numbers came out that my district had too much population for a legal district and I would have to lose people to have a legal district.  I anticipated that this would mean that I would lose a precinct or so.  Instead, the proposal includes more dramatic changes to my district than I anticipated which I am still processing.  

The overall proposal creates a new district based in Chelsea that will be an incumbent-free and a Hispanic majority district, which is great.  A representative who currently represents Chelsea needs to pick up around 20,000 new voters as a result, and all will come from my district and the districts around mine in Boston and Cambridge.  As a result, there is much more shifting than anticipated.

My wife Julie drew lines on a current Ward and Precinct map so you could see the lines with streets better, which is below. The proposal for my new district includes:

1) all of Beacon Hill that I currently represent and a little more,
2) most of the West End that I currently represent (not east of Martha Road), 
3) all of Back Bay that I currently represent and a little more except one block of Beacon,
4) East Fenway, 
5) a portion of West Fenway, and
6) the area near Northeastern.  

The district would become a Boston only district and would not include Cambridge.  This has been the biggest surprise for me.  The Cambridge precincts would be represented by Mike Connolly (all of Ward 5), Mike Moran (Ward 2, precinct 2) and Dan Ryan (Ward 2, precinct 3).   

As I mentioned, the comment period started today and ends at 5pm on Monday the 18th. You can submit comments to the committee here. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office if you have any questions.