LYNN — Hundreds of people last night filled the Lynn City Hall auditorium in support of saving the 6th Congressional District.
An array of speakers, from elected officials, community and business leaders to concerned citizens, argued before state lawmakers on the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting that the district was growing, geographically coherent, and made up of communities that have a shared history and work well together.
It has been around for more than 150 years, and Democratic Congressman John Tierney said its "core" should be preserved and expanded.
"The core of this district, from Lynn to Amesbury, has successfully moved west and south on other occasions," said Tierney, who was the first of the 66 people who signed up to testify to address the committee. "If you start with our core, then you can easily bring in people along the periphery."
Population shifts captured in the recently completed 2010 Census have given the committee the job of eliminating one of Massachusetts 10 congressional districts. Committee members have held information-gathering hearings like the one last night in Lynn throughout the state.
The committee must carve out nine districts with populations of roughly 727,000 residents.
As currently constituted, the 6th District contains about 656,000 residents (the 2000 population plus 3.1 percent) and, like all the other districts, would need to add between 72,000 and 76,000 people.
Bill Luster, executive director of the North Shore Alliance for Economic Development, said it makes sense to bring all of Essex County within the 6th District by adding the only four communities — Haverhill, Methuen, Lawrence and Andover — not currently in it.
Michael Harrington, a Democrat who held the 6th District seat from 1969 to 1978, is a proponent of making Essex County whole in the 6th and said that Massachusetts should have one western district, one central district and that the remaining seven districts should be dispersed among the more populated eastern portion of the state.
Many spoke out against moving Lynn into a district with Boston.
"I love (Boston), but I don't want to be put with it in any type of congressional district," said Lynn City Council President Timothy Phelan. Such a move, he said, would be "an impediment of monumental proportions" and take Lynn decades to overcome.
Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and Senate chairman of the redistricting committee, praised those who spoke for making compelling arguments, but pointed out that he has heard similar versions of them in other parts of the state. Smaller communities to the west, for example, don't want to be lumped in a district with Springfield, he said.
Leaders from various fields, including Robert Norton, president and CEO of North Shore Medical Center, Patricia Meservey, president of Salem State University, and Beth Hogan, executive director of North Shore Community Action Programs, spoke of the value of keeping the district intact with its own voice in Washington.
Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, who was on a panel that included Peabody Mayor Michael Bonfanti and Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon, said the district's communities have established relationships that have led to the regionalization of some services.
"No other district can point to the type of longevity that we have," Driscoll said. "We may be rivals on Thanksgiving Day in football games across the region, but we know the value of working together, and having a united front is important to us."
Steve Immerman, president of Montserrat College, a school of 400 students, said he didn't want to be part of a district that forced him to compete with Harvard and MIT. Wayne Burton, president of North Shore Community College, said he didn't want his school's two campuses — Danvers and Lynn — in separate districts.
Republican Peter Torkildsen, who preceded Tierney as the 6th District representative, said the district could not be defined as politically "blue" or "red."
"It's closer to a purple district," Torkildsen said, highlighting the 2010 election when he said Tierney won with 57 percent of the vote but Charlie Baker, the Republican candidate for governor, won 30 of its 36 communities.
In the 6th District, Torkildsen said, "each candidate has a competitive opportunity for success" and that is a strength.
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