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Richard Edmund Neal is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 1st congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party and a former city councilor and mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts. He is the dean of the Massachusetts delegation to the House of Representatives.Neal was president of the Springfield City Council from 1979 to 1983, serving as mayor of Springfield from 1983 to 1989. He was nearly unopposed when he ran for the House of Representatives in 1988.