Republicans could have a shot for the first time in years at winning a seat in the Massachusetts U.S. House delegation under a new redistricting plan released Monday that reduces the state’s seats in Congress from 10 to 9.
According to the Boston Globe, the new map reconfigures the North Shore area 6th District now held by eight-term incumbent Democrat John F. Tierney to include at least two towns that have voted Republican in recent years.
Encouraged by the new district lines, Former state Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, whom the Globe describes as a “socially liberal Republican,” says he plans to challenge Tierney in the 2012 election.
Tisei said the addition of the Billerica and Tewksbury townships could help him win. “Those are very fertile territories” for Republicans, he told the Globe.
The reconfigured 6th District may be the only seat Republicans have a chance of winning in the Democrat-dominated state. But at least one Democratic member of the delegation will be out anyway because the state will now have only nine seats in the House due to lower population figures.
Rather than face the possibility of losing to a delegation colleague, Rep. William R. Keating told the Globe he plans to move from Quincy to Cape Cod to avoid running against Rep. Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston in the newly created 8th District. Keating says he’ll run in a bigger 9th district that will include the Cape.
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