Legislature Debates Redistricting

The will vote on a plan Jan. 18, which could alter the political landscape in Concord for years to come.

The plan proposes combining Concord’s Ward 5 with Hopkinton to create a new, multi-representative district between the two communities. It would also create new, single representative districts in Ward 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10. Ward 4, 6, and 7, would be a four-representative district. The approved the plan late last year, by a 12-5 vote.

Currently, Concord has three multi-representative districts. Ward 1, 2, and 3, have four representatives in one district; Ward 4, 8, 9, and 10, have five representatives in one district, and Ward 5, 6, and 7, have four representatives.

Originally, officials presumed that the Redistricting Committee would , one for each ward, with three at-large representatives, running city-wide, in order to get to 13, the number of representatives Concord should have.

If approved and signed into law, officials and politicos worry that voters in Hopkinton could elect a slate of candidates and deny a Concord candidate from winning a seat. Hopkinton voters would out number Ward 5 voters by about 1.5-to-one. Currently, the only Ward 5 representative serving in the Legislature is state Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, D-Concord, a minority leader in the House.

Concord’s representatives and others have panned the proposal, mainly based on Ward 5 and Hopkinton combination proposal.

After seeing the plan, Merrimack District 10 State Rep. , D-Concord, who is also an at-large city councilor, looked at previous redistricting plans as far as 1887. None, he said, had Concord sharing a House seat with another community. Shurtleff said a 2006 Constitutional amendment approved allowing for “the smallest political sub-division” would state that Ward 5, with a population of about 4,320, should have its own state representative, not unlike other city wards, he said.

“My concern isn’t partisan,” he said, adding that he supported alternative plans forwarded by Republicans that proposed keeping Concord whole.

Merrimack District 11 state Rep. , D-Concord, who is also a city councilor from Ward 9, agreed with Shurtleff.

“Combining Concord's Ward 5 with Hopkinton (or any ward in the city with another town) makes no sense,” she said in an email. “There is no commonality between the town of Hopkinton and the city of Concord.”

Former state Rep. , D-Concord, who represented Ward 5 for many years in the House, has also aggressively opposed the plan, writing letters and testifying. Previously, she also served on the Municipal & County Government Committee and said there are too many problems with joining Hopkinton and Concord. Both communities’ municipalities vote at different times during the year. Hopkinton has a Town Meeting in the spring and Concord has elections in November. Education is funded at completely different levels in each community, with Concord receiving many free and reduced lunches, based on lower incomes than Hopkinton. Each community offers a completely different culture, she said, adding that Hopkinton could be combined with Bow and Dunbarton instead.

A plan forwarded by state Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, R-Manchester, that proposed separating Hopkinton and Concord, as well as fixing problems with Franklin’s redistricting, was rejected by the committee.

Vaillancourt has offered a floor amendment to the redistricting bill that will be brought up on Wednesday. His proposal would create thirteen districts in Concord - 10 individual districts, one for each ward, and then three super-districts, with an at-large member, described as a "float," in each of them. The three super-districts would be comprised of Ward 1, 2, and 3; Ward 4, 5, 6, and 7; and Ward 8, 9, and 10.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained incomplete information about Vaillancourt's amendment.