Report: Tisei Plans Run for Congress

Former State Senator Richard Tisei said yesterday he plans to challenge Democratic Congressman John F. Tierney if a proposed redistricting plan is adopted, according to a story in today's Boston Globe.

The Republican said the addition of Billerica and Tewksbury, towns that have voted Republican in recent years, could help the party defeat Tierney, the Globe reported.

Under the proposed redistricting plan, Lynnfield and most of the North Shore remain in the Sixth District, which currently runs from Saugus up to Merrimac and Salisbury on the New Hampshire border. Over to the west, other towns in the district include Bedford, Wilmington and Burlington. The nearby Fifth District begins with Revere, Stoneham and Melrose before branching out more toward the 495 belt area.

Tisei is a Lynnfield High School graduate and former state representative who went on to become the Senate Minority Leader and left the State Senate at the start of last year. He has been a broker/owner at in Lynnfield for more than a decade.

The former state senator also appears to have a primary opponent waiting for him. Bill Hudak, a Republican who ran and lost against Tierney in 2010, has already announced his candidacy for the Sixth District as well.

The redistricting proposal was unveiled Monday. It decreases the number of Congressional districts in the state from 10 to nine because the state's population grew slower than the rest of the nation's over the last 10 years.

The full House and Senate have to approve it before the Congressional session ends on Nov. 16. If that happens, the governor has to sign it in order for it to be approved.

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