As Barrios tells the story, the loss of his district was a sudden and unexpected blow he only learned about when the newest district maps came out a week ago. At that point, he mounted a last-minute campaign to save the Cambridge minority-influence district by uniting much of the old 28th in Demakis’s district.

Demakis hotly contested Barrios when the resolution encroached on his own political territory. The motion was quickly defeated on a voice vote.

But according to other representatives, the seat was obviously vulnerable from the start since Barrios was leaving.

“What they have done in the past is that they carve up the district of an exiting incumbent,” said Watertown Representative Rachel Kaprielian.

Demakis said discussion of dividing the 28th district has been on the table since the very beginning of the redistricting process—”the past three months.”

Still, Cambridge Representative Alice K. Wolf—who will be the lone full-time representative of the city under the new district plan—said she was shocked when the 28th disappeared from the map.

“We just assumed we were going to keep [Cambridge’s] 2.5 districts,” Wolf said.

The one thing the representatives all agree upon is the 28th district’s importance to Cambridge, and the magnitude of the loss of the minority seat.

“My city, which I have represented for 28 years, has been cut into six pieces,” Wolf said.

“I don’t think [Barrios] understood what the ramifications in Cambridge would be,” Demakis said.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.