Rep. Martin Meehan (D) Elected 1992, 6th term
Born:	Dec. 30, 1956, Lowell
Home:	Lowell
Education:	U. of MA, B.S. 1978, Suffolk U., M.A. 1981, J.D. 1986
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Ellen Murphy)
Professional Career:	Staff Asst., U.S. Rep. James Shannon, 1979-81; Research analyst, MA Legislature's Joint Cmte. on Elections, 1982-84; MA Dpty. Secy. of State for Securities & Corps., 1985-90; Middlesex Cnty. 1st Asst. Dist. Atty., 1990-92.
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The Merrimack River Valley at the northern edge of Massachusetts has had an erratic history: High-tech boom, bust, boom, bust, boom. When Massachusetts was a kind of maritime republic in the 19th century, with many farmers struggling to scratch out a living from the stony soil, a few clever Yankees used their profits from the sea trade to try to tame the rapidly flowing Merrimack and build cotton-spinning mills. Creating the cities of Lowell and Lawrence, they built model dormitories and recreation programs for their women workers. This was the center of America's textile industry for more than a century, long after the maritime industry faded. But in the 1920s, the price of labor rose and newly built mills in the Carolinas, much closer to the cotton supply, decimated the industry that Lawrence and Lowell built. Many residents--by then, rather elderly--waited forlornly for an upturn in the local economy.

It came eventually, largely due to an unexpected source. High-tech industry drove the growth, beginning in the 1960s around MIT, then moving out to the Route 128 ring road and then I-495, which passes through Lowell and Lawrence. Wang, headquartered in Lowell, grew spectacularly, and Senator Paul Tsongas spearheaded a national historic restoration of the old mill area. This was the Massachusetts miracle of the early 1980s. Then came the bust: Wang's word processors and minicomputers slumped as businesses purchased personal computers and hooked them together in networks. But Lowell revived again. Its new immigrants--mostly from Cambodia and Puerto Rico--provide vitality and entrepreneurial creativity; the old Wang buildings are filled with health care, banking, telecommunications and Internet companies.

The 5th Congressional District includes Lawrence and Lowell, which along with next-door towns account for about two-thirds of the district's population. The remainder of the district is the high-tech corridor south on circumferential Interstate 495. The district also includes tony suburbs like Concord, the mountains along the New Hampshire state line and the small towns west of Lowell that once hosted Fort Devens, which closed in 1996, though part of the base today survives as a training site for Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers from across New England. Except for Lowell and Lawrence, it is ancestrally Yankee Republican. It is culturally liberal and trended toward the Democrats in the early 1970s. Back then, the 5th produced two Democratic candidates who would later run for president: John Kerry, who lost the general election in 1972, and Paul Tsongas, who won the seat two years later. In the 1980s and 1990s, amid the high-tech boom, it went Republican in national and even statewide elections: A kind of Baja New Hampshire. In 1992, it gave Bill Clinton his lowest percentage in the state, while a big vote went to high-tech pioneer Ross Perot. But in the 1990s, its cultural liberalism moved it toward Democrats, and in 1996 and 2000, it voted solidly for Clinton and Al Gore. This was George W. Bush's second-strongest district in Massachusetts, but that's not saying much: He won only 36% of the vote here.

The congressman from the 5th District is Martin Meehan, a Democrat elected in 1992. Meehan grew up in Lowell, one of seven children of a 43-year Lowell Sun typesetter. As a child, he memorized President Kennedy's speeches from long-playing records, kept a scrapbook on Robert Kennedy, and idolized Sen. Edward Kennedy. He is a lifelong politico: He was an aide to Congressman James Shannon while working on his masters degree, worked in the Massachusetts secretary of state's office after law school, and was first assistant district attorney in Middlesex County from 1990 until he ran for Congress in 1992. He took on eight-year incumbent Democrat Chester Atkins, who had grown highly unpopular in the district. Meehan beat Atkins by the astonishing margin of 65%-35%. In the general, Meehan faced former Republican Rep. Paul Cronin, who beat Kerry in 1972 (the only open seat carried by George McGovern to also elect a Republican to the House), but lost to Tsongas in 1974. Meehan won 52%-38%.

Meehan combines a mostly liberal voting record with distinctive stands on issues. One of his crusades is against tobacco; his father, a smoker, had heart surgery when Marty was 11. He sponsored a bipartisan bill with a $1.50 a pack tax and a target of cutting youth smoking by 80%, and later proposed a ban on Internet sale of cigarettes to kids. His other great cause is campaign finance reform. Starting in 1997, with Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays and Senators Russ Feingold and John McCain, Meehan co-sponsored a series of campaign finance bills, and the law was finally enacted in 2002. It outlawed soft money, subjected non-candidate ads to disclosure and contribution limit requirements, strengthened FEC enforcement powers, required posting of forms on the Internet and created a commission to recommend more reforms. House Republican leaders opposed Shays-Meehan in its various forms, but the House passed the bill in September 1999 when it was clear that it could be stopped in the Senate by the Republican leadership or by filibuster. Then, when John McCain pushed a version of the bill to passage in the Senate in April 2001, Meehan and his allies saw an opportunity to turn it into law. They managed to defeat the House leadership's rule which would have made it difficult for their version to pass in July 2001--the only rule defeated on the House floor during Dennis Hastert's first four years as Speaker--but the House Republican leadership yanked it from the calendar. Meehan and his allies then sought to get the required 218 signatures on a petition to discharge it from committee and bring it to the floor under their own terms of debate. That finally happened in February 2002. Despite the apprehensions of Democratic fundraisers, who were more dependent on soft money than Republicans, Meehan kept most Democrats and many Republicans aboard. George W. Bush signaled that he would not veto it, and it passed with a large bipartisan majority 240-189, with 41 Republicans and 198 Democrats voting in favor.

Meehan serves on the Armed Services Committee and has generally moved to cut defense spending, but he boosts local Raytheon operations and its upgrades of the Patriot missile. Over the years, his voting record seems to have drifted left: He voted for NAFTA in 1993 and against trade promotion authority in 1997 and 2001. Yet he was one of three House Democrats from Massachusetts to vote to authorize President Bush to use force against Iraq.

When Meehan first ran for the House in 1992, he pledged to serve no more than four terms. In 1999, he said he would break his pledge. He roiled some Democrats when he voiced interest in the 2002 race for governor, but then changed his mind when threatened with the loss of his district through redistricting. Against nominal opposition in 2002, he was reelected to his House seat with only 60% of the vote, a sign that he needs to spend more time working his base. But Meehan remains interested in running statewide if an opening should appear.

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DC Office
2229 RHOB 20515, 202-225-3411; Fax: 202-226-0771; Web site: www.house.gov/meehan

State Offices
Haverhill, 978-521-1845; Lawrence, 978-681-6200; Lowell, 978-459-0101.

Committees

• Armed Services (7th of 29 D): Terrorism, Unconventional Threats & Capabilities (RMM); Total Force.
• Judiciary (10th of 16 D): Courts, the Internet & Intellectual Property; Crime, Terrorism & Homeland Security.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	75	86	100	63	79	50	20	44	9	3	0
2001	90	--	100	86	--	--	11	29	0	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	86%	--	14%		84%	--	16%
Social	83%	--	11%		74%	--	19%
Foreign	86%	--	12%		70%	--	29%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development Y 5. Faith-Based Charities N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union *

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Martin Meehan (D)	122,562	60%	$897,286
	Charles McCarthy (R)	69,337	34%	$256,212
	Ilana Freedman (Lib)	11,729	6%	$160,640
2002 primary	Martin Meehan (D)	unopposed
2000 general	Martin Meehan (D)	unopposed
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (71%); 1996 (100%); 1994 (70%); 1992 (52%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	145,277	57%
	Bush (R)	93,406	36%
	Other	18,433	7%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fifth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +11
• District Size: 582 square miles
• Population in 2000: 635,326; 93.5% urban; 6.5% rural
• Median Household Income: $56,217; 8.9% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 20.9% blue collar; 66.9% white collar; 12.1% gray collar; 10.9% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 79.7% White, 1.7% Black, 5.2% Asian, 0.1% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.4% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 11.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 16.6% Irish, 9.8% Italian, 8.9% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.