Many North Shore officials said U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan's decision to not run for governor would help their efforts to keep the 6th District largely intact and avoid a primary with John Tierney.

Meehan's decision to run instead for Congress was driven, in part, by House Speaker Thomas Finneran's proposal that would carve up the Lowell congressman's 5th District and replace it with a new seat in southeastern Massachusetts. Local officials are worried Finneran's proposal could dilute their region's identity and political clout by pulling Lynn from the 6th and replacing the city with four communities, including Meehan's hometown of Lowell and Lawrence, in the upper Merrimack Valley.

"I would think this can only help," state Rep. Michael Cahill, D-Beverly, said of Meehan's decision, announced yesterday. "I don't believe it's necessary to pit two incumbent congressmen against each other when no seat (in the state's congressional delegation) is being eliminated." Many prominent Democrats want to prevent a primary battle. So Meehan's decision could put pressure on state lawmakers, who redraw congressional districts every 10 years based on the U.S. Census, to protect Meehan's 5th District and Tierney's 6th.

There's plenty of time for more changes to the political map. The House still needs to vote on its redistricting plan and the Senate's redistricting committee won't release its version until September.

Rally in Lynn

On the North Shore, municipal and state officials continued their effort to protect the current 6th District and keep Lynn from being moved into the 8th District, where it would be overshadowed by Boston.

Lynn Mayor Patrick McManus said about 400 people attended a rally to keep Lynn in the 6th at Lynn City Hall yesterday morning. The crowd, McManus said, included several other mayors, including Stanley Usovicz of Salem, Nicholas Costello of Amesbury, Bill Scanlon of Beverly and Peter Torigian of Peabody, as well as other former and current elected officials from the area.

"With Marty deciding to stay (in Congress), he's going to be working to try to keep his district intact," McManus said. "Ideally, that's going to make things easier for all of us."

The reasons Meehan cited yesterday for his decision included his determination to keep fighting in Washington for campaign finance reform and his desire to protect the 5th District from being split up.

When asked for a comment about Meehan's choice, Tierney's office released a brief statement. Tierney, of Salem, said he hopes the Legislature's final redistricting plan reflects both Meehan's decision and the fact that both the 5th and 6th districts have grown significantly in population during the past 10 years.

Finneran said in a written statement yesterday he'll keep the door open for Meehan. He added, however, that the Legislature needs to keep focused on three main goals: linking similar communities, establishing a minority-oriented district, and creating the new district in fast-growing southeastern Massachusetts.

Starting from scratch?

Senate President Thomas Birmingham said Finneran's plan would be more attractive if the Legislature started the redistricting process from scratch.

"But we never start from scratch in politics," Birmingham told reporters yesterday. "We do have incumbents and we do have traditional districts, so these are all factors that will be weighed in the Senate's consideration."

It will be difficult to accomplish all of Finneran's goals and protect Meehan's district. The southeastern Massachusetts district the speaker proposed would be particularly difficult to save if the Legislature chooses to protect the current 5th District.

"The Legislature will probably do what they can to try to accommodate Congressman Meehan," said state Sen. Richard Tisei, R-Wakefield, who sits on the Senate's redistricting committee. "But by the same token, we're also hearing from a lot of people in southeastern Massachusetts that want to be represented as well."

The two current Democratic congressmen for that area, Barney Frank and James McGovern, have addresses in Newton and Worcester, respectively. Tisei said it would be hard to not give a new district to the south coast area, which includes Fall River and New Bedford, just to protect Meehan now that Finneran's plan to create the new district is public.

"The genie is out of the bottle," Tisei said. "It's going to make it very difficult to tailor a district for Marty Meehan. Whatever is done in one part of the state will have a ripple effect."