The state’s proposed new congressional districts dice up Cambridge, to the benefit of the rest of the state. Or, as Rep. Alice Wolf puts it, “A lot of people are feeling that Cambridge is getting dissed again.”
Wolf tells the Cambridge Chronicle that the city’s State House delegation is mobilizing and looking for ways to reunite the city, which was split in two under redistricting maps unveiled last week. “It’s going to be a very to be a tough sell and it’s definitely an uphill battle,” she says. “The irony of it is that the part of Cambridge that has been part of the 8th congressional district …shows that it is a predominately white district that can vote very heavily for a minority candidate like it did in 2006 when it voted for Deval Patrick. I’m still hoping that somehow we can find a three or four way trade that can work.”
And there’s the problem — for Cambridge, and for Milton, Boston, Fall River, Andover, Sudbury, Palmer, Bellingham, Raynham and Winchendon. All were split under maps that would consolidate the state’s 10 congressional districts into nine districts. Redistricting is, on its face, a mathematical process. But it’s also intensely political, and when politics and math collide, compromises have to be made. And since district lines don’t exist in a vacuum, changes to one district’s make-up necessarily affect the others.
It’s not difficult to draw nine districts in Massachusetts — districts that protect one person/one vote requirements, and Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters. Things get complicated when incumbency protection comes into play, especially when incumbents represent districts that have already been gerrymandered. That’s when trade-offs happen.
Last week, state Rep. Michael Moran, who co-chaired the Legislature’s redistricting committee, told reporters that the committee’s primary goals were creating a strong majority-minority district, and ironing out some of the contortions in the current district maps. The new maps eliminated the district of retiring US Rep. John Olver, and pitted US Reps. Steve Lynch and William Keating against one another; within hours, Keating announced that he’ll be moving to a new district spanning the South Shore, South Coast, and the Cape.
The new map leaves Michael Capuano representing a majority-minority district running from Somerville, through Boston, to Randolph. It also leaves Lynch in place in South Boston; his district now doglegs down to Bridgewater, and then back up to West Roxbury. Slicing Cambridge in two let the committee hit its majority-minority numbers. It probably could have left Cambridge whole, trading the city’s whitest neighborhoods for Allston-Brighton, but then Boston would have been split in three — something Moran said the committee was unwilling to do.
There also was a third option — consolidating Boston into one district, as Rep. Dan Winslow wanted to do. That would have left Cambridge whole, and in a majority-minority district. But it also would have thrown Capuano into a contest with Ed Markey. That clearly wasn’t a politically palatable option for lawmakers. And when maps start with eight incumbents in place, some cities get, as Wolf says, dissed.
–PAUL MCMORROW
BEACON HILL
The Legislature is expected to take up a gambling bill today without the Senate’s happy hour provision and with a one-year ban on lawmakers working in the industry, the Worcester Telegram reports. The bill would also require the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission to perform a two-year review of all the state’s liquor laws. The Berkshire Eagle fears that the state hasn’t heard the last of the “happy hours” debate.
Lynn receives a $500,000 state grant to fix up the Seaport Landing Marina, one of 23 infrastructure projects approved by the state, the Item reports.
Radio Boston examines the state’s three-strikes bill with state Sen. Bruce Tarr and Leslie Walker, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
In a testy exchange with a Verizon representative, the Quincy City Council is considering a proposal to fine utilities that do not remove “double poles” within the state-mandated 90 days, saying the companies routinely ignore the state law because it has no teeth.
Pembroke selectmen voted to explore the possibility of creating a regional power company in partnership with several abutting towns after the latest problems with the state’s utilities responding to the Halloween snow storm and the remnants of Hurricane Irene.
Marlborough faces $500,000 in additional expenses for firefighter overtime.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Wall Street protesters are ousted from Zuccotti Park in New York, WBUR reports. Occupy Oakland has been kicked out of a local park for a second time. Meanwhile, Occupy Worcester protesters move to a different park, NECN reports. The MetroWest Daily News says the movement’s tactics are distracting from the groups’ core message of income inequality. CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow, in his weekly Globe column, says Occupy is suffering from an affliction common to left-wing movements: difficulty putting forward a coherent message tied to tangible goals.
The US Supreme Court decided to hear challenges to the federal health care reform law, Governing reports. The New York Times argues that, for much of the nation’s health care system, there may be no going back, whichever way the court rules.
Jerry Sandusky, the man at the center of the Penn State child sexual-abuse scandal, denies the charges but admits showering with kids. “I horsed around,” he says. Legal experts weigh in on former coach Joe Paterno’s decision to hire a lawyer. The Cape Cod Times argues that money has corrupted college football so much that entire universities and communities are also affected by scandals.
Slate’s David Weigel watches 60 Minutes with Andrew Breitbart, the conservative agitator who helped sink Anthony Weiner.
ELECTION 2012
US Sen. Scott Brown, whose consumer rights record will be front-and-center in his presumed reelection match-up against Elizabeth Warren, became the first Republican senator yesterday to announce support for the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the agency Warren helped design. On NECN’s Broadside, Jim Braude and John Carroll discuss the ads slamming Brown and Warren. Warren’s campaign counters with an ad that seeks to introduce her to voters “before you hear a bunch of ridiculous attack ads.” In a fundraising appeal, Warren’s campaign says it wants to match a $600,000 ad buy from Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS super PAC. Liz Morningstar, a former top political adviser to Gov. Deval Patrick, heads a new anti-Brown PAC.
Bill Hudak and former state senator Richard Tisei plan to challenge US Rep. John Tierney in a Sixth Congressional District that has grown more Republican-friendly, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Jon Huntsman’s father is bankrolling a major ad blitz in New Hampshire.
The Springfield Republican says that Republican presidential debates have served their purpose: to show voters who’s ready to be president and who is not. (The paper might have added that videotaped newspaper editorial board meetings are playing such a role as well.)
President Obama’s campaign team turns to the Democratic sage, Bill Clinton, for advice. The campaign is missing its army of enthusiastic young volunteers, though. Obama and Mitt Romney size each other up.
Deval Patrick is acting a lot like a 2016 presidential contender, Joe Battenfeld says.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
WGBH kicks off its week-long series on the State of the American Dream, a project in which they have partnered with us at MassINC and CommonWealth. On Emily Rooney’s radio show, CommonWealth editor Bruce Mohl talked about his story in our special issue on the growing gap in income equality. On Greater Boston, MassINC research director Ben Forman joined Rooney, Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, and Norwood business owner Jeanne Babel to talk about the middle-class struggles.
The Navy today will officially sign over the long-closed South Weymouth Naval Air Base to LNR, the developer planning to build a mixed-use smart-growth community of residences, retail and office space.
Since early morning on Black Friday isn’t early enough, both Toys R Us and Walmart plan to open nationally on Thanksgiving evening. In Massachusetts, however, they’ll have to wait until at least midnight because of the state’s 17th-century blue laws that prohibit retail employees from working on Thanksgiving. Some stores here are pushing opening times to 12:30 am or later (or is it earlier?) to allow time for workers to punch-in after midnight and get stores ready for the throngs.
EDUCATION
The state has filed its formal request for a waiver from the mandates of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law, saying the original law’s goal that all students be proficient in math and English by 2014 was not realistic.
A new report criticizes the state’s 15 public community colleges for doing too little to coordinate programs that prepare students for jobs in health careers, a huge sector of the state economy. In 2007, CommonWealth looked at the lackluster performance of the state’s community colleges.
Representatives from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said they may have to install advisers to monitor the Fall River School Committee if members continue to defy and ignore state education policy and mandates.
Billerica’s interim school superintendent will be paid $166,000 and also pocket a $119,000 retirement pension from the Acton-Boxboro Regional School District, the Lowell Sun reports.
Williams College students hold a rally to show solidarity after racial slurs found on a wall in a campus building led to the cancellation of classes and athletic events on Monday.
TRANSPORTATION
Massport officials are in trouble now: Paul Levy had to wait in line for 40 minutes for a taxi at Logan Airport, and he now has a better plan for how cabs can be efficiently dispatched.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Fairhaven residents opposed to the building of two wind turbines by the town are vowing to head back to court to stop the project they thought was killed after their first suit in 2009.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The arraignment of a Weymouth 18-year-old charged with killing his sister, mother, and his mother’s boyfriend brought out grisly details of the triple murder.
Two sisters were found shot to death yesterday morning in the Dorchester apartment they shared, the 56th and 57th homicides in Boston this year.
Rezwan Ferdaus, the Ashland man who allegedly plotted to use remote-controlled airplanes to blow up the Pentagon and the US Capitol, seeks bail.
MEDIA
The Nieman Journalism Lab analyzes Jim Romenesko’s early exit from the Poynter Institute.