Rep. Stephen Lynch (D) Elected Oct. 2001, 1st term
Born:	Mar. 31, 1955, Boston
Home:	South Boston
Education:	Wentworth Inst., B.S. 1988, Boston Col. Schl. of Law, J.D. 1991, Harvard U. JFK Schl. of Gov., M.A. 1998
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Margaret)
Elected  Office:	MA House of Reps., 1994-96; MA Senate, 1996-01
Professional Career:	Structural ironworker, 1973-91; Practicing atty., 1991-01.
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The Irish remain the dominant political tribe in Boston and in Massachusetts, though even in South Boston, long the center of Irish Boston, vestiges of the old Irish neighborhoods are starting to gentrify. But Southie's influence endures in the memory of two Irish Democrats who represented the area for all but two years from the Great Depression to the start of the 21st century. The first was John McCormack, an old-style backroom dealmaker who served as House Speaker during the 1960s, when he arguably had passed his political prime; then came Joe Moakley, a close pal of Tip O'Neill, who got his former seat on the Rules Committee and chaired the panel before Democrats lost their House majority.

The 9th Congressional District, historically anchored in Boston, has followed the move of the Irish to the suburbs. Today, less than one-third of its residents are in Boston, mostly in still-Irish areas of South Boston, Hyde Park (shared with the 8th) and West Roxbury; it also includes much of Beacon Hill, including the gold-domed State House facing Boston Common. From there, the 9th heads west to comfortable suburbs of Needham and Medfield and southeast to Braintree, ancestral home of the presidential Adamses, and Brockton, the old shoe manufacturing town, and Bridgewater. Ethnically, it is the nation's second-most heavily Irish congressional district (working-class Southie is home to an annual St. Patrick's Day parade, preceded by a political breakfast/roast that is a must-attend for state politicians). Only the neighboring 10th District has more residents of Irish ancestry--further evidence of the Irish move out of Boston to the far south suburbs.

The congressman from the 9th District is Stephen Lynch, who won a special election in October 2001 to replace Joe Moakley, who had served since 1973 and was beloved by many House Democrats as a link between the party's old and new generations. Lynch came from Boston's housing projects and took pride in succeeding by the old ethnic codes of hard work, family loyalty and personal determination. After graduating from South Boston High School, he joined his father in working full-time as an ironworker while attending Wentworth Institute; eventually, he became the youngest president ever of the 2,000-member Local 7 of the Ironworkers union. After a fall on the job cut short his work on the iron, he graduated from Boston College Law School and opened a legal practice representing working people. In 1994, he was elected to the state House. Fourteen months later, he won a special election for a seat in the state Senate, where he sponsored an increase in the state's minimum wage.

Lynch built a large base in South Boston and had strong union ties, advantages that led him to seek the 9th District seat when Moakley announced in February 2001 that he would not seek reelection; Moakley died of leukemia at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in May 2001. Lynch was one of several Democrats who had expressed interest in the race. The most prominent, however, was Max Kennedy, son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, but his campaign never gathered any traction. When Kennedy bowed out in June from what became the special election, Lynch became the front-runner. He stumbled following the Boston Globe's revelations of his student loan defaults years earlier, plus a tax lien that was resolved in 1998; he also had been twice arrested two decades earlier, once for striking an anti-American student demonstrator and the other for smoking marijuana at a concert. Three other state senators opposed Lynch: Cheryl Jacques, Brian Joyce, and Marc Pacheco. The strongest foe was Jacques, who is openly gay and had support from EMILY's List and other national feminist groups, which criticized Lynch's anti-abortion views. But her switch to opposing capital punishment stirred controversy. Joyce, who dropped his earlier opposition to abortion, was the most prolific fundraiser of the four; he sought to rally suburban support against Lynch, who was perceived as the South Boston candidate. Pacheco vied with Jacques for the liberal vote, and was endorsed by teachers' unions. Citing her as "the most principled progressive in the race," the Globe endorsed Jacques. Moakley's two brothers, however, endorsed Lynch.

Lynch got favorable press coverage in the final days of the campaign from an emotional ad that described how he gave part of his liver months earlier to his ailing brother-in-law. Coincidentally, Lynch was hospitalized several days before the primary because of intense pain caused by complications from his surgery. On the morning of the September 11 primary, Lynch and others thought that the terror attacks--two of the hijacked airplanes had taken off from Boston--would postpone the voting, but Governor Jane Swift asked voters to stare down fear and the voter turnout was higher than expected. Lynch won with 39%, a comfortable margin ahead of Jacques, who had 29%. He credited his large grass-roots organization, which he claimed included 4,000 volunteers. In the anti-climactic general election five weeks later, Lynch defeated another state senator, Jo Ann Sprague. Republican strategists had hoped that her pro-choice views on abortion might give them a chance against Lynch, but polls showed otherwise and the national party gave Sprague little support. Lynch won 66%-33%. His swearing-in was delayed several days because the anthrax scare had closed the Capitol.

Given the circumstances of his election, Lynch not surprisingly turned his attention to security, both at the nation's airports and in the war on terrorism. He also visited each post office in his district to monitor anthrax protection measures. He was one of three Massachusetts House members to vote for the Iraq war resolution. On a personal concern, Lynch filed a bill to streamline research on liver disease at the National Institutes of Health.

Lynch won a full term with no difficulty in 2002. But shortly after the election, he drew unpleasant notice in his home base after University of Massachusetts President William Bulger, the former state Senate President and a favorite son of Southie, was required to appear before the House Government Reform Committee in December. The hearing was part of a congressional inquiry into Bulger's fugitive brother's relationship with the FBI; Lynch voted to deny Bulger's request to close or postpone the hearing. In a well-publicized letter to a local newspaper, Bulger's son Christopher, who was defeated by Lynch in a 1996 bid to succeed his father in the state Senate, harshly attacked Lynch for the vote and for not defending his father.

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DC Office
319 CHOB 20515, 202-225-8273; Fax: 202-225-3984; Web site: www.house.gov/lynch/

State Offices
Boston, 617-428-2000.

Committees

• Financial Services (28th of 32 D): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Housing & Community Opportunity; Oversight & Investigations.
• Government Reform (13th of 19 D): National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations; Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations & Census.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	90	50	100	100	--	33	23	40	13	3	33
2001	--	--	100	100	--	--	--	44	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	*	--	*		92%	--	7%
Social	*	--	*		58%	--	41%
Foreign	*	--	*		71%	--	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 * 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights * 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development * 5. Faith-Based Charities * 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts *		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Stephen Lynch (D)	unopposed
2002 primary	Stephen Lynch (D)	69,244	81%
	William Ferguson (D)	16,643	19%
2001 spec. gen.	Stephen Lynch (D)	44,943	66%	$1,887,960
	Jo Ann Sprague (R)	22,645	33%	$173,565
2001 spec. prim.	Stephen Lynch (D)	44,105	39%
	Cheryl Jacques (D)	32,933	29%
	Brian Joyce (D)	16,818	15%
	Marc Pacheco (D)	15,009	13%
Prior winning percentages: 2001 (39%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	167,059	60%
	Bush (R)	93,529	33%
	Other	19,051	7%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Ninth 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 +14
• District Size: 319 square miles
• Population in 2000: 634,062; 98.4% urban; 1.6% rural
• Median Household Income: $55,407; 7.5% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 17.3% blue collar; 68.9% white collar; 13.7% gray collar; 11.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 79.3% White, 8.1% Black, 3.7% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 2.4% Two+ races, 1.8% Other, 4.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 23.2% Irish, 10.3% Italian, 7.0% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.