Barney Frank Doesn't Live Here Anymore

I wondered what exactly it was about the redistricted 4th district that scared Barney Frank into retirement, so I looked at the voting in the January 2010 special election for U.S. Senate between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley.

The 4th district was stripped of the Democratic stronghold of New Bedford, leaving only 25% of the district population in the reliable Democratic cites of Newton, Brookline, and part of Fall River. Turns out Scott Brown carried the cities and towns in the new 4th district by 26,314 votes.

City or Town	Population	Brown (R)	Coakley (D)	Margin
North Attleborough	28,712	7,778	3,018	4,760
Franklin	31,635	8,828	4,470	4,358
Attleboro	43,593	8,598	4,819	3,779
Mansfield	23,184	5,909	3,045	2,864
Easton	23,112	5,931	3,350	2,581
Wrentham	10,955	3,880	1,414	2,466
Foxborough	16,865	4,821	2,465	2,356
Taunton	55,874	8,925	6,586	2,339
Norton	19,031	4,424	2,209	2,215
Lakeville	10,602	3,248	1,259	1,989
Norfolk	11,227	3,308	1,394	1,914
Milford	27,999	5,432	3,561	1,871
Medway	12,752	3,641	2,044	1,597
Medfield	12,024	3,842	2,276	1,566
Rehoboth	11,608	3,080	1,538	1,542
Hopkinton	14,925	4,123	2,600	1,523
Plainville	8,264	2,469	971	1,498
Bellingham*	12,638	3,165	1,686	1,479
Seekonk	13,722	3,133	1,911	1,222
Raynham*	7,719	2,061	973	1,088
Millis	7,891	2,430	1,383	1,047
Freetown	8,870	2,220	1,189	1,031
Dighton	7,086	1,770	829	941
Berkley	6,411	1,614	746	868
Swansea	15,865	3,297	2,449	848
Dover	5,589	1,888	1,058	830
Hopedale	5,911	1,619	997	622
Somerset	18,165	3,706	3,553	153
Wellesley	27,982	5,922	5,934	-12
Needham	28,886	6,894	7,654	-760
Sharon	17,612	3,536	4,461	-925
Fall River*	36,927	3,112	4,297	-1,185
Brookline	58,732	5,217	15,264	-10,047
Newton	85,146	11,352	23,456	-12,104
Total	727,514	151,174	124,860	26,314

* In order to square the Constitutional requirement of one man, one vote, with other less noble objectives in the redistricting process, the 4th District was assigned 77% of Bellingham, 58% of Raynham, and 42% of Fall River.

The redistricting scissors were also applied to Cambridge, where 52,234 residents were carved out for Ed Markey's 5th district and 52,928 left for Mike Capuano's 7th district. I suspect that state legislators working at the behest of Boston Mayor Tom Menino are trying to reclaim the 7th district for Boston from Somerville's Mike Capuano.

The new 7th is designed to be a majority minority district with 57% of district population nonwhite or hispanic. That means minority community activists will want to run a candidate to challenge Capuano in the Democratic primary. With 66% of the 7th district population in Boston and only 10% in Somerville, that could mean early retirement for Mike Capuano.

But what were the Democratic state legislators thinking when they drew the 4th? Certainly the right Democrat could win. The danger is that rare breed of Scott Brown Republican who could draw independent voters. That may be what the legislature wants. It surely hasn't escaped their notice that the new Republican Congress hasn't been returning Barney Frank's calls or emails.

Periodic complete loss of clout is a major liability for our all-Democrat U.S. House delegation - in times like these the state could sure use a go-to-guy in the U.S. House Republican caucus.