OVERVIEW

The Massachusetts Senate Legislative Districts (2002) datalayer reflects the state Senate district boundaries as defined by Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 57: Section 3. These 40 districts are those used in the Fall 2002 elections. Names of elected officials are up-to-date as of March 2008. The names of the statewide datalayers are SENATE02_POLY (polygons) and SENATE02_ARC (arcs). This replaces the older SENATE93 layer.

Staff at the Massachusetts Senate developed this layer with its contracor, Caliper Corp. (Newton, MA) using Maptitude for Redistricting software. MassGIS appended the 1:100,000 coastline and state outline and added the senators' name and party attributes. Final election results were obtained from a "Return of Votes" report (in PDF format) from the Secretary of State.

The polygon attribute table has the following items:

ITEM NAME		WDTH / TYPE		DESCRIPTION
SEN_DIST		43 / C		Name of Senate District
SENDISTNUM		2 / I		Senate District number
SEN_FIRST		13 / C		First name of Senator
SEN_LAST		15 / C		Last name of Senator
SEN_PARTY		3 / C		Senator's political party
SENATOR		40 / C		Senator's full name and party

Note: The SENDISTNUM item is also found in the Census 2000 Blocks layer, where it may be used for relating demographic information to Senate districts.

In the arc attribute table, the item OUTLINE is coded as follows:

• 0  =  Internal district boundaries
• 1  =  State
• 2  =  Coastline

MassGIS maintains the layer and will make updates as needed. In March 2003 the boundary between Sen. Fargo's district and that of Sen. Jacques was adjusted.

In April 2004, the polygon attributes were changed to reflect Sen. Scott Brown replacing Sen. Cheryl Jacques in the Norfolk, Bristol, and Middlesex district.

In January 2005, attribute updates were made to reflect changes based on the November 2004 elections. In April 2005, the attributes for the Second Middlesex district were edited following the death of Sen. Shannon. In October 2005, the attributes were edited, as Patricia Jehlen filled Sen. Shannon's open seat.

In January 2007, attribute updates were made to reflect changes based on the November 2006, elections. In October 2007, attributes were edited for three senatorial changes. In March 2008 attributes were edited after special elections to fill two vacant seats.

This layer, along with the Mass. House Districts, may be viewed online with the Legislative District Browser.

Last Updated 3/24/2008
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