In the new map, the central and western parts of the state would be divided into two neat districts rather than three convoluted ones. Cape Cod and the Islands, much of Plymouth County, and the South Coast would all be in a single maritime district. The point isn’t that congressional districts should look pretty on a map; it’s that, as much as possible, towns with common geography and economic interests belong together.
In bringing that about, the redistricting panel wasn’t inordinately deferential to the short-term needs of incumbents. It puts Steve Lynch of South Boston and Bill Keating of Quincy in the new 8th District; the coastal 9th is an open seat. (Well, theoretically; Keating also has a home on the Cape, and has already declared he’ll move there to run for the open seat.) In the new map, Barney Frank loses solidly Democratic New Bedford and gains towns that Republican Scott Brown represented in the Legislature.
Meanwhile, one evident priority in the congressional remap was to solidify a so-called majority-minority district, where most voters are black, Latino, or Asian. This was a double-edged decision. It’s not safe to assume that voters in different minority groups all have the same interests. The new 7th District snakes all the way from East Boston to Randolph; and the 8th District, which largely surrounds it, includes South Boston and parts of Jamaica Plain - but nothing in between - while stretching all the way south to Raynham. Still, the demographics of the 7th District should fend off voting-rights litigation against the state, and could well result in greater engagement of minority voters.
The sanity of the congressional plan is a tribute to the legislative redistricting panel, chaired by Senator Stanley Rosenberg and Representative Michael Moran. Last month, the same panel dutifully proposed a reasonable new set of state legislative boundaries with a minimum of fuss. The new congressional maps surely aren’t precisely what an independent redistricting panel might produce. But they’re not too far off.
