Republican Scott Brown broke the all-Democratic hold on the state’s congressional delegation with his election to the US Senate last year, but Republicans have not held a House seat from Massachusetts since 1996, when Peter Blute and Peter Torkildsen were swept away in the Clinton presidential reelection tide.
Both Republicans had been elected in 1992 after redistricting and defeated incumbents who had been tarred by scandal.
Frank, first elected to Congress in 1980, told reporters yesterday that the new district lines were a major factor in his decision to retire at the end of his term next year. Last year, he beat back a strong challenge from Republican Sean Bielat, a former Marine, who is considering a 2012 run in the district.
The new district includes Frank’s liberal northern base around Newton and Brookline and adds Democratic-leaning Needham, but eliminates the Democratic stronghold of New Bedford and adds 16 towns, mostly in the central and southern tiers. They include the city of Attleboro and the towns of North Attleborough, Franklin, Walpole, Wrentham, and Milford. Many lean or are solidly Republican, and some have provided fertile ground for the fiscal conservatism of Tea Party insurgents.
Besides the fourth, districts considered more hospitable for Republicans include the sixth, north of Boston - held by eight-term Democratic incumbent John Tierney of Salem, who ousted Torkildsen - and the new ninth, in Southeastern Massachusetts. This district includes New Bedford and more than half of Fall River, but also 10 mostly conservative towns in Plymouth and Bristol County. The cities of Quincy and Weymouth are now part of another district.
