Meehan seen on short list at UMass

US Representative Martin T. Meehan has emerged in recent weeks as a leading candidate for chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, a move that would set off a political stampede to fill his much-coveted seat and create the first competitive fight for a Bay State congressional district in more than five years.

Meehan, a seven-term Democrat, has not applied for the job, but has agreed to be interviewed Friday by the 21-member search committee, sources knowledgeable about the deliberations told the Globe. The interview will be conducted by phone, while the congressman attends a congressional retreat in Pennsylvania, the sources said.

Meehan, 50, a Lowell native who has until now steered clear of the search process, declined to comment yesterday. In recent weeks, as speculation mounted about his possible move to academia, potential candidates for his Fifth District seat have begun to anticipate a special election this spring.

The sources said that Meehan has signaled to university officials in recent months that he would be interested in the post if it were offered with the right terms and that he would be willing to talk to the search committee. The committee received about 100 applications, from which it chose three finalists. It then added a half-dozen others to its list, including Meehan, the sources said. University officials declined to comment on the committee's work.

"He's going to give this a very serious look," said one of the sources. The source described Meehan's general interest in UMass-Lowell as a passion. He received his bachelor's degree from the university, with a cum laude degree in education and in Congress has worked to promote its interests and funding. He also holds both a law degree and a master's degree in management from Suffolk University.

The opportunity to become chancellor, however, could pose a difficult choice for Meehan, with Democrats in control of the US House and Senate after a dozen years of Republican rule. Meehan, as the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, is hiring a new staff and laying the groundwork for investigations and hearings into fraud and abuse in the spending of Iraq reconstruction funds. He is scheduled to lead a delegation of its members to Iraq in mid-February.

On the other hand, Meehan, who leads most other incumbent congressmen with a $4.9 million campaign war chest, saw one of his political ambitions fade last week, when John F. Kerry dropped out of the 2008 presidential race and announced he would seek reelection to his Senate seat, which many members of the delegation had hoped to pursue. There has not been a US Senate vacancy in Massachusetts since 1984.

The last competitive congressional race in Massachusetts was in the Ninth District in 2001, following the death of Representative J. Joseph Moakley. Stephen F. Lynch won the seat easily after emerging the victor from a seven-way Democratic primary.

Meehan faces some political hurdles in winning the UMass -Lowell post. He tangled with former UMass president William M. Bulger when the university leader came under fire for having contact with his fugitive brother, mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. The former president still has allies in the university system, including President Jack M. Wilson and some of his senior staff. Bulger's longtime aide, James R. Julian Jr. , who is now one of Wilson's top aides, serves on the search committee. After receiving the committee's top three choices, Wilson will send his recommendation to the trustees for ratification.

Meehan's advocates at the university say that the congressman, with his well-honed political skills and connections, is the perfect candidate for the position, one who would hit the ground running. His strong relationships in Congress, in the national Democratic political establishment, and on Beacon Hill are highly attractive to a university that is hungry for federal and state funding.

Meehan displayed his credentials when he recently escorted state university officials, including Wilson and UMass Board of Trustees chairman Stephen P. Tocco, around Capitol Hill, introducing them to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top leaders, including Representative John P. Murtha Jr., the Pennsylvania Democrat. Murtha chairs the Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, a prime source of university research funding. Meehan backed Murtha in his losing bid to become Pelosi's majority leader. Last year, Meehan toured the UMass-Lowell campus with a Bush official who is in charge of the Defense Department agency that distributes science and technology grants.

In addition, Meehan is also very familiar with the major Massachusetts firms that the university could collaborate with to seek federal funding. Some at the university feel that with the right leadership, it could emerge in the next decade as a world leader in nanotechnology and in nanomanufacturing, the making of micromaterials.

The university has a heavy emphasis on applied science and engineering programs. Long a leader in plastics, it is striving to become a world-class institution in what it calls sustainable economic and social development. Meehan's Armed Services subcommittee oversees the Defense Department's research development and science technology program, a $34 billion enterprise that funds university research.

Also working in Meehan's favor are his ties to the city and region, including his work as its congressman for the past fourteen years, and his familiarity with local issues, including the university's relationship with surrounding neighborhoods and the challenges posed by operating out of two campuses, separated by the Merrimack River.

UMass-Lowell has more than 11,000 students in 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in five colleges and schools: arts and sciences, education, engineering, health and environment, and management.