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The 4th Middlesex District is one of 40 electoral districts that each send one senator to the Massachusetts Senate. The district is represented by state Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington, a Democrat.

The Massachusetts Senate district map has included a 4th Middlesex District since district representation was adopted in 1857. Its current composition of Arlington and suburban towns to the north has remained, with minor additions and subtractions, since the apportionment of 1973; previously the 4th Middlesex District covered other suburban areas, centered on Framingham or Malden.

Cities and towns
Under the apportionment plan of 2011, the 4th Middlesex District consists of Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, Woburn, and the eastern half of Lexington, all in Middlesex County, from which the district takes its name. Arlington, at the district's southern end, is an inner-ring suburb of Boston; Billerica, at the northern end, is in Greater Lowell. The other three towns are in the northwest corner of the Route 128 corridor.

History
The 4th Middlesex District can trace its history back to the original state senatorial districts created in 1857. Before the 1857 apportionment, senators were elected by county, with Middlesex County electing three to five senators at-large.

1857-1866: Northwest Middlesex towns
When the current system of single-member districts was enacted in 1857, Middlesex County was split into six districts. Most of the towns in today's 4th Middlesex District were placed in the 5th Middlesex District. The inaugural 4th Middlesex District covered a wide swath of mostly rural land in northwestern Middlesex County: the towns of Acton, Ashby, Boxborough, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dunstable, Groton, Lincoln, Littleton, Marlborough (including the future Hudson), Pepperell, Shirley, Stow (including parts of the future Maynard), Townsend, Tyngsborough and Westford.

1866-1896: South Middlesex towns
New lines drawn in 1866 renumbered this northwestern district as the 5th Middlesex District and reassigned the 4th Middlesex District name to the southern and southwestern towns of the county. This new 4th Middlesex District included Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick, Newton, Sherborn, Wayland and Weston.

Redistricting in 1876 made two changes to the district, adding Marlborough and removing Newton. Another reapportionment in 1886 added Maynard and Sudbury.

1896-1974: Malden area
Large-scale changes to the senate district map in 1896 resulted in the South Middlesex district being renumbered as the 1st Middlesex District, and a new 4th Middlesex District consisting of Everett, Malden and Melrose, north of Boston on the eastern edge of the county. These boundaries would remain unchanged for four decades.

In 1939, one of Malden's seven wards was redistricted into the 3rd Middlesex District, but otherwise the district remained the same, with all of Everett, most of Malden, and all of Melrose.

Two of Everett's six wards were reassigned to the 1st Suffolk District in the redistricting of 1948, but no other changes were made to the 4th Middlesex District, leaving it with most of Everett, most of Malden, and all of Melrose. New lines drawn in 1960 returned one of Malden's wards to the 4th Middlesex District but made no other changes.

Malden Mayor Fred I. Lamson was elected state senator in 1952 and served for two decades.

Everett was removed from the district in the reapportionment of 1970, the last ward of Malden was added, and two new towns were added, yielding a district encompassing all of Malden, Melrose, Stoneham and Wakefield.

1975-1986: Arlington to Woburn
Just three years after the 1970 lines were drawn, Massachusetts redistricted again. Malden, Melrose, Stoneham and Wakefield were moved to the new 3rd Middlesex District. McGrail was re-elected in this district.

The new 4th Middlesex District established is the forerunner of today's district. It included all of Arlington, Winchester and Woburn, ward 6 of Medford, and the eastern half of Lexington.

John W. Bullock, the incumbent senator from the former 6th Middlesex District, ran for re-election in the 4th Middlesex District in 1974.

Bullock faced two primary election challengers in 1976, and lost to Samuel Rotondi, who captured 55.7% of Democratic votes to Bullock's 37.9%.

Redistricting in 1977 dropped Medford from the 4th Middlesex District and brought the rest of Lexington into the district, which now consisted of all of Arlington, Lexington, Winchester and Woburn.

Rotondi took 73% of the vote in a Democratic primary election against Helen T. Metros in 1980, and was re-elected with no opponent in November.

In 1982, Rotondi opted not to run for re-election, instead pursuing the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. He finished third in the primary election; John Kerry won the nomination and served as Mike Dukakis' running mate.

In the 4th Middlesex District, Dick Kraus of Arlington won a six-way Democratic primary for the open seat, with 27.7% of the vote, edging out James J. Lyons Jr. of Arlington, who had 27.3%. With no Republican or independent on the ballot, Kraus was elected senator in November 1982. Kraus survived a primary election challenge in 1984 to be re-elected that year, again with no opponents from outside his party.

In 1986, Kraus did not face a primary election opponent, but Helen T. Metros, who had run in the Democratic primaries in 1980 and 1982, ran as an independent, as she had done in 1974 and 1976.

1989-2002: Cambridge and expansion north
Winchester was removed from the 4th Middlesex District in the apportionment of 1987, while Ward 11 of Cambridge and the entire town of Burlington were added. All of Arlington, Lexington and Woburn remained in the district, as well.

Kraus did not run for re-election in 1990. In that year's Democratic primary election, Arlington state Representative Robert Havern III took 48.9% of the vote in a three-way race to capture his party's nomination.

The redistricting of 1993 added Billerica on the northern edge of the district, but curtailed the 4th Middlesex District's footprint in Cambridge to one precinct; in Lexington to only the eastern half of the town; and in Woburn to six out of the seven wards. All of Arlington and Burlington remained in the district.

Havern was re-elected with no opponents in 1996. He defeated a primary challenger, and was re-elected with no November opponents, in 1998.

2003- : Arlington to Billerica
The reapportionment of 2001 removed Cambridge from the district but made no other changes to the 4th Middlesex District, which now consisted of Arlington, Billerica, Burlington, the eastern half of Lexington, and all but one ward (the South End) of Woburn.

Havern was re-elected with no opponents in 2002.

Havern defeated Woburn City Councilor Joanna Gonsalves in the Democratic primary of 2006, and faced no general election opponent. Less than a year later, however, he resigned from the Senate to take a private sector job.

In the ensuing special election, state Representative Jim Marzilli -- who had taken over Havern's former seat in the state House of Representatives -- won with 38% of the vote in a Democratic primary election that included future state Senator Ken Donnelly (25.7%) and two other sitting state representatives, Charles A. Murphy (20.7%) and Patrick Natale (15.0%). Former state Representative Brion Cangiamila was the only Republican candidate on primary ballots.

Less than a year after being elected, Marzilli resigned from the Senate in November 2008 amid charges of sexual harrassment, and after finishing third and last in that year's Democratic primary election, with 5.9% of the vote. Ken Donnelly, the runner-up in the previous year's primary election, won the nomination with 54.3% of the vote. Republican primary ballots were blank, but Brion Cangiamila was nominated with write-in votes.

Donnelly was re-elected with no opponents in 2010.

Redistricting in 2011 returned ward 2 of Woburn to the 4th Middlesex District, which now consisted of all of Arlington, Billerica, Burlington and Woburn, and the eastern half of Lexington.

Donnelly was re-elected with no opponents in 2014 and 2016. He died in office in April 2017.

In the Democratic primary for the 2017 special election to fill the vacancy, Donnelly's former chief of staff, Cindy Friedman, took 51.3% of the vote, ahead of state Representative Sean Garballey's 45.6%, in a three-way race.