NORTHAMPTON — A front-page story in today’s Boston Globe takes a look at U.S. Rep. John Olver’s political future, given that the state’s Congressional delegation will shrink from 10 to nine seats.

The story, by Mark Arsenault, includes an interview with the 74-year-old Amherst Democrat, who has represented the 1st Congressional District since 1991.

It starts, “The congressman appears to lack the basic skill set of politics. John Olver is wonkish, rarely quotable, and not much of an orator — and this is according to his friends.”

But the story goes on to chronicle his longevity, his ranking minority role on the Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and his financial resources for campaigning.

The piece also notes that a former aide to Olver, state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, will play a key role in the redistricting process. Massachusetts will lose a Congressional seat because the latest Census shows a continued shift in the U.S. population to the Southwest.

Olver, a former chemistry professor at UMass, does not dispute that he prefers data over political glad-handing. Even his rival in 2010, William Gunn, acknowledges in the report that with Olver, what you see is what you get.

Arsenault quotes Rosenberg as saying this about his former boss: “He’s an enigma wrapped in a paradox — the most unlikely politician.’

Meantime, the article reveals that Olver’s wife, Rose, a professor emeriti at Amherst College, has begun treatment for ovarian cancer.