Peisch: New District Lines Pose Unique Challenge

The state’s senatorial, congressional and representative district lines must be redrawn to reflect population shifts indicated by the latest U.S. Census. On Saturday, the Massachusetts Special Joint Committee on Redistricting held its  in Framingham to collect input from area residents and representatives on how they’d like to see things change, or as Weston’s state representative and joint committee member said, how they’d like to see things stay the same.

“What’s been interesting to me at all of these hearings…is that people are supportive of the incumbent, but asking the district to be drawn differently,” Rep. Alice Peisch said in a phone interview yesterday. “They’re not mutually exclusive.”

The lines must be redrawn to accommodate population shifts, which are routine, and the state must reduce its number of congressional seats from 10 to nine, which isn't, said Peisch, a Democrat who represents the 14th Norfolk District – which includes Wellesley, Weston and a small section of Natick. There are legal limitations to such a redrawing, she said, but the feedback will be helpful in the long run.

Some local elected officials who attended Saturday’s meeting said they’d like to see the senatorial district, which currently includes communities between Wayland and Attleboro, more centrally focused, according to Peisch.

The state must consider a standard of “compactness” when redrawing lines, and must endeavor to keep “communities of common interests” together, Peisch said.

The feedback shifts throughout the state, Peisch said. She gave the example of an earlier meeting in the western part of the state. People who showed up to the meeting expressed concern that the interest of the mostly rural could be compromised if it had to share a senator with one of the area’s more urban centers such as Pittsfield.

“I can’t tell you that we’re not going to have to put a small city in with the Berkshires, but having heard that that’s something I otherwise would have not known,” Peisch said.

The joint committee’s task is difficult because, despite the hearings – two more are planned – there is only so much legal wiggle room.

“When you look at the legal standards we have to meet you start to see there’s not a whole lot of area for creativity,” Peisch said.