By Paul Tuthill
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-959555.mp3
Springfield, MA – The census figures released this week set the stage for the politically charged process of drawing new Congressional districts in Massachusetts. The state lawmakers who are in charge of redistricting will be holding a series of public hearings, starting Saturday in Springfield .WAMC"s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports .
It has been know since late last year that Massachusetts is losing one of its ten seats in the US House because the state's population did not grow as rapidly as other states according to the 2010 US Census.. The data released this week shows the state's population growth was un-even..with fewer residents in the Berkshires, rural Franklin County and on Cape Cod. Central Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area saw the largest population gains...
The state's chief information officer, Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Galvin says the data is the hard cold reality that is the starting point for the fight over how Massachusetts will eliminate one of its Congressional seats..
All ten Congressional districts added population. But according to an analysis by the Boston Globe, Congressman John Olver's First district gained the least,..just over one and a half percent because of the population declines in Berkshire and Franklin Counties The second district, represented by Richard Neal of Springfield, grew by 4 point 2 percent. Neal believes the data offer a persuasive case for keeping two Congressional seats inWestern Massachusetts .
State Senator Stanley Rosenberg of Amherst, who co-chairs the legislature's re-districting committee says there were no big surprises in the census figures .
Rosenberg has pledged an open and transparent redistricting process. He says no decisions will be made until after a series of 13 scheduled public hearings across the state conclude in June. The first of these hearings is Saturday in Springfield, starting at 10 AM at the Van Sickle Middle School on Carew Street.. Two additional Western Massachusetts hearings have been scheduled in Pittsfield and Greenfield..
Pam Wilmot, the executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts says the public hearings are a good start to a very difficult high stakes endeavor that will ultimately produce winners and losers
Wilmot says there will be the inevitable political horse trading , but she believes the legislature will try very hard to produce a plan that would hold up if challenged in court
In 2004 a federal court ruled the state had violated the Voting Rights Act by drawing legislative house districts to intentionally weaken the clout of minorities. That case led to the subsequent conviction of former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran for perjury.