Amherst and Northampton, two of the state's more liberal communities, would go into the district of U.S. Rep. James McGovern of Worcester.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, left, could face a challenge from former Pittsfield state senator Andrea F. Nuciforo if a draft congressional redistricting map is ultimately approved.BOSTON - Top state lawmakers Monday released a new congressional district map that dramatically overhauls the district of U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal of Springfield and positions him to face a former state senator from Pittsfield in next year's primary.
Under the proposed map, Western Massachusetts would lose one of the two congressional districts currently based in the region. If approved, the new districts would go into effect for next year's election.
Neal's new 1st congressional district would pick up all of Berkshire County and would expand from 41 communities to 82. The new 1st district would include all of Hampden County and would run from the New York border east to Bernardston along the Vermont border and southeast to include Easthampton and South Hadley and farther south to take in parts of southern Worcester County such as Charlton and Dudley.
Parts of Hampshire and Franklin counties, including Amherst, Belchertown, Deerfield, Northampton, Ware and Greenfield, would go into the new 2nd congressional district of U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, a Worcester Democrat.
State legislators split up the current 107-community district of U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, an Amherst Democrat who announced 10 days ago that he would not run for re-election next year after 20 years in Congress.
In a phone interview from his Amherst home last night, Olver said legislators did "a very good job" at apportioning most of his district among Neal and McGovern. Olver described Neal and McGovern as two of the most powerful members of the state's U.S. House delegation. Olver said he had no regrets about his plans to step down after his term concludes next year. "It was the right decision for me," Olver said.
Olver said that if he had decided to seek another term, his district would have been moved farther into Middlesex and Worcester counties to account for population growth in the east, meaning he would have had to spend half his time in those two counties. Olver said it probably would not have mattered for Western Massachusetts to be the base of two members of Congress if one of those members had to spend half his time outside of the region.
Neal said he was pleased with the new map, which includes about 320,000 people now in the district of Olver including Holyoke, West Springfield and Westfield. Neal said people in Berkshire and Franklin counties are familiar with his record in Congress and he looks forward to getting to know them better.
"The Berkshires and parts of Franklin County will be very good for me," Neal said. "I intend to vigorously represent them."
Neal said he is definitely running for re-election, saying he has a good record of success on the international, national and regional levels. Neal pointed out that he voted against authorizing the War in Iraq and also voted against tax cuts approved under former President George W. Bush.
Neal said he was looking forward to a primary contest if it happens, saying it would be a good exercise.
"I'm going to run as Rich Neal," said Neal, elected in 1988 and currently the sixth-ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee and the No. 3 most senior member of the state's U.S. House delegation. "I'm not going to reinvent myself."
View full sizeThe proposed 2012 Massachusetts congressional districts.The new map sets up a primary contest for Neal next year with Andrea F. Nuciforo, a Pittsfield Democrat, former state senator from 1997 to 2007 and current register of deeds in Pittsfield.
Nuciforo Monday said he planned to run next year against Neal in the Democratic primary for the newly-designed 1st congressional district.
"Let's face it," Nuciforo said. "My progressive credentials are well-established. We can't change the game in Washington unless you change the players."
Gardner and Fitchburg, currently in Olver's district, would go into the new district of U.S. Rep. Nicola S. Tsongas, D-Lowell.
Sen. Michael R. Knapik, a Westfield Republican, said McGovern's base is solidified by gaining the liberal communities of Amherst and Northampton and other parts of Hampshire and Franklin counties, making it difficult for a Worcester-based Republican to win the seat.
Knapik said the new congressional map seems to have some logic behind it, but it could have been written to include more of Western Massachusetts in Neal's new district. "The identity of the Pioneer Valley will be broken up," Knapik said.
Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg of Amherst and Rep. Michael J. Moran of Boston, the co-chairmen of the Joint Committee on Redistricting, said Amherst is a good fit for Worcester because Worcester is home to the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Northampton also meshes well with Worcester because of a high number of colleges in each community, he said.
Rosenberg said a main goal was to keep all of Berkshire County in one congressional district. Rosenberg and Moran said Nuciforo's planned candidacy, or anyone else's election plans, was not a factor in the map.
Rosenberg said the hill towns of Franklin and Hampshire were kept in Neal's new district because they are similar to the small towns in Berkshire County.
Rosenberg said he preferred that Western and Central Massachusetts keep three congressional seats but population trends meant it was not possible.
Massachusetts lost one of its 10 congressional seats because it did not grow as much as other regions of the nation during the past decade. Berkshire County lost population, making Olver's current district the slowest growing in the state since 2000. State legislators needed to design a new nine-seat map and enlarge the population of districts.
Moran said the committee plans to vote on the new map on Thursday. The state House of Representatives would vote on Tuesday, he said. The state Senate and Gov. Deval L. patrick would also need to approve the new congressional map.
Moran and Rosenberg said the public has three days to comment on the new districts map for the U.S. House of Representatives. The two legislators said it is the first time the state has established a period of public comment for a draft congressional map.
Outside of Western Massachusetts, the map would force two members of the state's all-Democratic delegation into a single district. It would also create one incumbent-free district in the southeast including Cape Cod, parts of the South Shore and New Bedford.
The map also configures the state's first congressional district where minority voters are in the majority by extending the Boston-area district currently represented by Rep. Michael E. Capuano of Somerville.
The proposed map would place U.S. Reps. Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston and William R. Keating of Quincy in the same district by moving Quincy into Lynch's current district.
Keating, a former district attorney whose family owns a home on Cape Cod, could avoid a showdown with Lynch by running in the newly-formed southeast district, some of which he already represents.