New districts to boost minority vote power
Changes to state Senate and House district maps aim to boost the power of minority voters historically for the next 10 years, said Democrats leading redistricting efforts.
“Currently you have two majority-minority districts in Boston, but neither one of them is capable of electing the choice of the Black voters,” Senate President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger said, unveiling the draft maps alongside House Democrats on Tuesday. “We’ve rebalanced those two and also their relationship to the districts around them.”
Two new majority-minority districts would boost the number from three to five, adding to two that already exist in the Boston area and one in the Springfield area. But in order to create a Hispanic-majority district in Lawrence, Brownsberger said the “only option” was to split the town of Haverhill.
The decision is getting blowback from some voting rights groups and Rep. Andy Vargas, a Haverhill Democrat who is running for the Senate.
Vargas said splitting “Haverhill by ethnic and racial lines” is “unacceptable to cut out the heart of Haverhill and segregate the most diverse precincts from the rest of the city.”
“While the motivations may be to empower Lawrence to elect a candidate of their choosing … it does not need to come at the expense of splitting Haverhill,” Vargas said.
The Drawing Democracy Coalition raised concerns immediately after state House members unveiled the draft maps on Tuesday, saying on Twitter it has “significant concerns” with the Senate map.
New border lines for all 160 House districts also aim to increase chances for minority candidates to win election to the Legislature — where they are vastly underrepresented.
Four new incumbent-free districts in Chelsea, Brockton, Lawrence and Framingham are all centered in districts with a majority minority population, said Assistant House Majority Leader Michael Moran.
The release of draft maps kicks off a public comment period that lasts until 5 p.m. Monday.
Lawmakers are scrambling to finalize redistricting plans before the Nov. 8 deadline for candidates to live in the districts they intend to run from in 2022.
House and Senate districts are redrawn every decade based on population trends. This year’s effort has been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, which delayed the traditional spring release of U.S. Census population data until midAugust.
New boundaries for the state’s eight Governor’s Council districts and nine congressional districts will be released “shortly,” Brownsberger said.