State Sen. Adam Hinds on the steps of Pittsfield city hall with his wife Dr. Alicia Mireles Christoff and their child. Photo: Josh Landes / WAMC

As lawmakers mull redistricting, Hinds tosses hat into ring for lieutenant governor

A new 3rd District map for Berkshire County, proposed by the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting, is "much better looking" than one proposed earlier by the Drawing Democracy Coalition.

PITTSFIELD — State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, formally announced yesterday that he will run for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. 

Meanwhile, in Boston, lawmakers have drafted a proposal that would expand Hinds’ current Senate district eastward because of population declines. That same proposal would reduce the numbers of House seats serving Berkshire County from four to three. More on that later.

“I am running for lieutenant governor because Massachusetts needs visionary leadership to take on the greatest challenges to residents — challenges that will determine the very ability of our Commonwealth to thrive in the next decade,” Hinds said on the steps of Pittsfield City Hall. “I have spent my career taking on some of the world’s most complex issues. I want to use my experience to make meaningful change in this state that we love so much.”

See video below recently released by the Hinds campaign:

Hinds then traveled east to Springfield, where he received the endorsement of state Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield. Gomez pronounced Hinds “the sort of transformational leader Massachusetts needs.”

“He has taken on some of the most divisive and complex issues of our time, from the Middle East Peace Process, the opioid epidemic, and COVID-19 pandemic recovery,” Gomez said. “Adam will ensure the lieutenant governor’s office represents every community and every region in the commonwealth. It says a lot that he is starting his campaign in the community.”

Hinds first ran for the Senate seat in 2016, besting a primary crowd consisting of attorney Rinaldo Del Gallo III and Andrea Harrington, who is now the Berkshire district attorney and whom Hinds later endorsed for that position. Hinds’ predecessor in the Senate, Ben Downing of Pittsfield, moved to Boston and is now running for governor

State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, talks to a reporter yesterday after announcing his candidacy in Springfield. Photo: Committee to Elect Adam Hinds, Twitter

Hinds, 46, joins Acton state Rep. Tami Gouveia, Boston businessman Bret Bero, and Scott Donohue, a transportation officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as candidates for lieutenant governor in 2021. His campaign says Hinds leads all announced candidates with fundraising cash-on-hand.

Hinds was raised in the town of Buckland in Franklin County and attended Mohawk Trail Regional High School, where his parents were both teachers. Hinds is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and received a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford. Two years ago, he married Dr. Alicia J. Mireles Christoff, an associate professor of English at Amherst College. The couple has a young son, Rafael Fernando Hinds.

Hinds worked for the United Nations and spent nearly 10 years in the Middle East, based in Iraq, where he was a team leader of a UN-led negotiation between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq over disputed territory. He spent two years in Jerusalem as a regional advisor to the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. He worked for former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a ceasefire in Syria in 2012 and was part of a team aiming to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program, the campaign said.

State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, in 2020. Photo: Sheela Clary

Early in his career, Hinds worked as an aide to Congressman John Olver. Before he ran for the Senate, he moved to Pittsfield and became the founding director of Pittsfield Community Connection, a youth violence prevention program, and later led the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.

As for which issues Hinds thinks he can make a difference as lieutenant governor, he cited “tackling the skyrocketing cost of living and inability to access homeownership, unsustainable childcare costs, traffic that is returning to pre-pandemic levels, a widening racial wealth gap, and opportunity divides in our schools, as well as the tangible impacts of climate change.” 

At the same time, “Massachusetts is recovering from the impacts of COVID-19 which has left so many people hanging on by a thread — financially, emotionally, and physically,” Hinds said.

Hinds announcing his State Senate candidacy at Hotel on North in Pittsfield, 2016. Photo: Heather Bellow

In a related development, the state legislature’s Special Joint Committee on Redistricting has issued a draft map of a redistricting proposal for lawmakers. The action is a response to recent census data. Massachusetts gained population but Berkshire County lost 3.27 percent of its full-time population and so will lose one of its four House seats.

A coalition of voter rights groups had recommended a plan that not only strips Berkshire County of a seat, as was expected, but configures a district that merges Rep. Smitty Pignatelli’s with Rep. Paul Mark’s, the latter of which is mostly in Franklin County. Mark has indicated he would consider running for Senate if Hinds does not run for reelection. In that case, Mark and Pignatelli would not have to run against each other.

The proposed sprawling new district stretches from the northern tip of Florida on the Vermont border south to Sheffield and Mount Washington on the Connecticut border, but excludes New Marlborough and Sandisfield, both of which are currently in Pignatelli’s district. Pignatelli told Politico’s Massachusetts Political Playbook that it is “The stupidest-looking district I’ve ever seen” and told The Edge it was a “ridiculous looking thing that they proposed.”

The new map for Berkshire County proposed by the legislative committee is much more coherent, or as Pignatelli described it to The Edge, “much better looking.”

Map courtesy Special Joint Committee on Redistricting

The Special Joint Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow to provide the public with the opportunity to comment on the draft State Senate and State House maps. The virtual hearing will take place Friday, Oct. 15, at 1 p.m. Click here for the broadcast page and for instructions on how to provide oral testimony.