UPDATED: Special Redistricting Hearing on Friday; Framingham Carved Up Into 4 Proposed Districts

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BOSTON – Under a draft proposal unannounced on Tuesday afternoon, the City of Framingham will be carved into four legislative districts beginning in 2022.

Framingham is one of a baker’s dozen new minority-majority districts created by a Special Joint Committee on Redistricting that wants to create legislative districts in which racial and ethnically diverse individuals or individuals in lower socio-economic districts could win a state representative seat.

The district created for Framingham (shown in red in the map below) would have no incumbent in the race come November 2022.

Rep. Jack Patrick Lewis, who represents 6 Precincts in South Framingham mainly and the Town of Ashland, will keep the Town of Ashland under the proposal, but he helped carve out a new district for himself that dumps all of his current Precincts but the one he resides in.

Current Rep. Maria Robinson and Rep. Lewis would live in the same district under the proposal. But Rep. Robinson has been nominated by President Joseph Biden to join the U.S. Department of Energy is unlikely to run for state representative in 2022.

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Rep. Carmine Gentile will no longer represent Precinct 3 in Framingham (Saxonville). That neighborhood is now part of the “majority-minority district” created.

Residents in Saxonville were very vocal that they no longer wanted to be in a district that was not attached to a large part of Framingham.

All of the current Precinct 1 and portion of Precinct 2 in Framingham will now be part of a district represented by Rep. Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough). That District also include the City of Marlborough.

And in a decision by the Committee, that has angered many in the City of Framingham, a portion of Precinct 4 currently in Framingham, will become a part of a Worcester County district that includes Westborough, Northborough, and Southborough.

The Special Committee will hold a virtual hearing for residents of the Commonwealth to offer comments on the draft State Senate and State House maps on Friday, October 15 at 1 p.m.

If you want to provide oral testimony, please click here to sign up. Please be advised that the schedule and agenda are subject to change at the discretion of the chair per committee rules. 

To watch the hearing and not tesify visit malegislature.gov. 

The Committee is accepting public comment on the proposed maps through 5 p.m. on Monday via https://malegislature.gov/Redistricting/Contact

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City leaders have asked Rep. Lewis to advocate for the map to be drawn. Rep. Lewis has not responded publicly on the matter except for a lengthy statement saying the map was “best” for the City of Framingham to SOURCE on Tuesday.

Several City leaders including City Council Chair George P. King. Jr. are not only unhappy about the proposal but unhappy the Commonwealth Committee chose to use the old 2010 Precinct maps for the City of Framingham instead of the newly-created ones in 2021, using the City of Framingham’s new 2020 census data.

By using the old maps, Framingham Districts and some Precincts will not be split by the new state proposal.

SOURCE asked the Mayor for feedback on Tuesday, this morning her spokesperson City of Framingham Chief Information Officer Kelly McFalls said “while the hearing is today at 1 p.m., comments are taken until Monday at 5 p.m. The Mayor is working on her input, and the City will be announcing it publicly on Monday. You will receive it when it is publicly announced.”

To read some of the feedback from city leaders on the proposal, read SOURCE’s Tuesday report.