Ross might leave Hill, run for Congress

City Councilor Mike Ross is considering a run to replace retiring Congressman Barney Frank—a move that would require him to move out of Boston and into the 4th Congressional District.

“People asked me if I was looking at it and I said, ‘Yeah, I am looking at it,’” Ross said of recent media reports that he is considering a run for the vacant seat.

But, Ross told the Gazette, he is not yet packing his bags to move back to Newton—where he grew up and Frank lives.

Ross is a Mission Hill resident and his City Council district includes most of the neighborhood.

“I call one place home and that’s Mission Hill. But before there was Mission Hill, there was Newton,” he said. Ross lived in Beacon Hill when he was first elected to City Council in 1999.

In a surprise announcement Monday, Frank said that after 30 years in Congress, he will retire when his term ends next year.

“I was surprised as everyone is” about Frank’s announcement, Ross said. “We are losing a fighter for this entire state and the country.”

Speaking to the Gazette last week, he said he has not had any time since the Monday announcement to seriously consider what he will do. “Everything at this point is very preliminary…There is a lot to take in for all of us. I want to get a few free moments,” he said.

But, he said, anyone who is planning to run will have to “make a decision relatively soon.”

Ross previously mulled a run for Congress when local Congressman Mike Capuano ran for senate in a special election to replace Ted Kennedy last year.

If he does decide to run, Ross’s move out of the district could clear the way Mission Hill to be moved from Ross’s current district, District 8, into District 6, which includes Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury. If Ross stays, that plan, put forward by City Councilor Bill Linehan, could set up an electoral battle between Ross and District 6 city Councilor Matt O’Malley.

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