Representative Martin T. Meehan (D-MA)
 Following is another of occasional profiles of members of Congress who are former state or local prosecutors. When Massachusetts lost one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990 reapportionment, then-Gov. William Weld, a Republican, negotiated a new congressional district map for that state that included a redrawn Fifth Congressional District that was designed to elect a Republican. Weld anticipated that the redrawn district would elect former GOP Rep. Paul W. Cronin, who entered the 1992 race expecting to face and defeat incumbent Democratic Rep. Chester G. Atkins. Neither Governor Weld nor Paul Cronin nor in fact Chester Atkins had reckoned on Martin T. (Marty) Meehan.
While Weld, Cronin and Atkins were concentrating on a Cronin-Atkins race, Meehan, a Democrat and the first assistant DA of Middlesex County, which includes the industrial cities of Lowell and Lawrence in north central Massachusetts, was deciding that he, too, would run for the Fifth District seat. Meehan knocked fellow Democrat Atkins out of the race in a hard-fought primary and went on to defeat Republican Cronin in a rough-and-tumble campaign in which Meehan stressed his tough-on-crime prosecutorial experience. As the authoritative Politics in America put it, that was Marty Meehan's last competitive election. With one exception he has been re-elected easily or without opposition ever since.
With Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci joining the Bush administration as ambassador to Canada and former Rep. Joe Kennedy formally announcing he won't seek the governorship, Meehan is automatically being rated a strong potential Democratic contender. Even President Bush recognized the possibility when he joshingly greeted Meehan as "governor" at a White House ceremony.
Meanwhile, Meehan has brought to Congress his prosecutorial skills, keen political sense and boundless energy. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee and House Armed Services Committee and is an influential member of both.
Recalling his experience as a prosecutor, Meehan says, "The one-on-one interactions I had with community members while working as a prosecutor have greatly influenced my perspective on crime-fighting policy. Effectively targeting quality-of-life crimes, which represent the seeds of greater neighborhood deterioration, requires law enforcement to interact constantly and form partnerships with community members."
Meehan is an avid supporter of community prosecution and community policing. "As a prosecutor, I saw how those partnerships were working to keep streets safe, and I took those lessons to Washington."
Prior to serving as first assistant DA in Middlesex County, Meehan served as Massachusetts deputy secretary of state for securities and corporations, earning a reputation as a tough law enforcer. The Boston Globe reported that "during Meehan's four years as deputy secretary, the Securities Division (went) from being a frequent embarrassment to gaining a national reputation as hard-hitting and activist."
As a member of Congress, he believes that the most important crime and criminal justice issues currently facing the national legislature include: continuing and expanding federal assistance to local law enforcement to hire new police and prosecutors and purchase cutting-edge crime-fighting equipment; enacting "common-sense" gun safety measures aimed at keeping lethal firearms out of the hands of felons, fugitives and children; and providing funding for after-school programs and other prevention programs aimed at steering young people on a path to opportunity and achievement.
Of all the anti-crime legislation he has been associated with, Meehan says he is most proud of his co-sponsorship of the 1994 Crime Bill, which provided federal funding for 100,000 new community police officers, toughened federal penalties for violent offenders, banned semiautomatic assault weapons and authorized effective prevention programs.
Meehan has taken the lead on other issues, including campaign finance reform and protecting children from the harmful effects of tobacco. On the latter issue, in 1994 he wrote a 111-page prosecution memorandum that served as the foundation of the U.S. Department of Justice's investigations of the major tobacco companies. In the 105th Congress he introduced the bipartisan "No Tobacco for Kids Act," which would establish a comprehensive national tobacco control policy aimed at protecting children, reducing tobacco use and improving public health. He was the co-author of legislation allocating funds from the multi-state tobacco settlement for programs to protect children from tobacco use.
Meehan admits he has a personal interest in curbing the use of tobacco. He told the Boston Globe that it springs in part from his father's 25-year smoking habit, which led to the clogging of his major heart arteries so drastically that he nearly died before he underwent surgery in 1967. Meehan recalled the day the doctors warned his father to stop smoking immediately if he wanted to survive. "What really got to me was that he was so addicted that he smoked a cigarette on the way home from being told that he was going to die if he didn't stop." Fortunately, Meehan added, his father finally did stop smoking.
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