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The Middlesex and Suffolk District is one of 40 electoral districts that each send one senator to the Massachusetts Senate. The district is represented by state Senator Sal DiDomenico of Everett, a Democrat.

In addition to Everett, the district includes Chelsea, part of Cambridge, and the adjacent Allston, Brighton and Charlestown neighborhoods of Boston.

There has been a Middlesex and Suffolk district most decades since the 1940s, always including some part of Cambridge and at least some part of Allston-Brighton, but the specific territory covered by the district has changed over time. Charlestown, Chelsea and Everett have only been included since the redistricting of 2011.

History
Before the 1850s, Massachusetts state senators were elected by county, with Middlesex County electing three to five senators at-large, and Suffolk County generally electing six. Even after the introduction of single-member state senatorial districts in 1857, the districts tended to stay within county lines.

The cities that now make up the Middlesex and Suffolk District were initially apportioned to districts in their home counties, though in three cases those counties were different than today. Chelsea was in the 1st Suffolk District. Both Everett and Charlestown -- then an independent city and part of Middlesex County -- formed part of the 1st Middlesex District. Cambridge was in the 2nd Middlesex District, as were Allston and Brighton, which formed the town of Brighton in Middlesex County.

Later in the 19th century, Charlestown and Brighton would be annexed to Boston, and would be included along with other parts of Boston in Suffolk districts.

Occasionally, some eastern neighborhoods of Cambridge would be included in a Suffolk district to balance the population figures. In the early 20th century, the Allston-Brighton neighborhood would sometimes be paired with Brookline in a Norfolk and Suffolk District.

The first Middlesex and Suffolk District was created in 1939, along the western edges of

1939: C(5), NWTN, B(22) 1948: C(5), NWTN, B(22)

1960: C(5) to 2Msx; Nwtn split betw Nfk&Msx and Nfk&Sfk; B(22) to Nfk&Sfk

1973: C(7,9,10,11), BLMT(p1,4,5,6,7,8), WTWN, B(21p7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16), B(22) 1977: C(8,9,10,11), BLMT, WTWN, B(21p9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16), B(22) 1987: C(7,8,9,10), BLMT, WTWN, B(21p9,11,12,13,14,15,16), B(22p1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13) 1993: C(7p3,4), C(9p2), C(10p1,2,4), C(11p1,2), WLTM(east half), BLMT, WTWN, B(21part), B(22part)

1975-1978: 2nd Middlesex and Norfolk
The initial 2nd Middlesex and Norfolk District, signed into law in 1973, consisted of suburbs immediately east of the Framingham-Medway area: Dover, Medfield, Millis, Needham and Wellesley, which had previously been part of the Middlesex and Norfolk District; along with Sherborn, Wayland, and two-thirds of the city of Waltham.

The district inherited Wellesley state Senator David H. Locke, who had been serving in the Middlesex and Norfolk District since 1969. In the election of 1974, he defeated a Republican primary challenger, Martin Lee Stone, 9,016 to 2,896. He also won re-election in a contested race.

Locke was re-elected with no opposition in 1976.