Boston City Councilor Michael Ross has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to explore a run in Massachusetts’ open 4th district, he told Roll Call.

The former president of the council, who represents the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway and other neighborhoods in the city, doesn’t live in the newly drawn 4th district or represent any territory within it. But Ross grew up in the city of Newton, the largest municipality in the 4th.

“The district is where I grew up,” he said late last week. “It’s a place that has given me so much and so many opportunities — and frankly, those opportunities don’t exist in the same way they did for me when I was growing up, and that’s one of the reasons I’m really interested in this.”

In Boston, Ross is seen as a strong fundraiser and a hard campaigner, but he would face an uphill battle in the primary if attorney Joseph Kennedy III, son of former Rep. Joe Kennedy and the grandson of the late Robert Kennedy, gets in the race. At least a half-dozen serious contenders are eyeing the Democratic primary. Roll Call rates the seat as Safe Democratic.