Boland was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1952.[7] Congressman Boland was in office during the closing of the Springfield Armory in 1968, and was harshly criticized for his inability to prevent its closure. This failure resulted in a challenge to Boland in 1968 by Springfield Mayor Charles V. Ryan. Boland was re-elected handily with significant help from the family of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy in what was to be the last challenge to Boland by a major contender. Boland's most famous work as a congressman was the 1982 Boland Amendment, which blocked certain funding of the Contras in Nicaragua after the Central Intelligence Agency had supervised acts of sabotage without notifying Congress.[8] Boland lived in a Washington apartment with fellow Massachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neill (whose wife remained in Massachusetts) until 1977.
Boland announced in April 1988 that he would not run for a 19th term later that year; he never lost an election in 50 years as an elected official.[9] Earlier, he'd tipped off Springfield mayor Richard Neal about his pending retirement, allowing Neal to get a significant head start in fundraising.[10] Neal would be unopposed for the Democratic nomination–the real contest in this heavily Democratic district–and has held this seat, now numbered as the 1st district, ever since.
Personal life and death
Boland married at the age of 62, fathering four children. Boland died in 2001 at the age of 90 from natural causes.[11]
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