Tsongas declared 5th District winner (Dems hold Mass. Congressional seat)

[Zenlitened]

Source: The Lowell Sun

A SUN STAFF REPORT

LOWELL -- The campaign of Democrat Niki Tsongas declared victory over Republican Jim Ogonowski at about 9:10 tonight, and the Associated Press sent a bulletin five minutes later declaring Tsongas the victor.

With 86 percent of precincts reporting, she had 51 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Ogonowski.

Tsongas, 61, could be sworn in as early as Wednesday to fill the seat once held by her late husband. The seat was left empty in July when Democrat Martin Meehan resigned to become chancellor of his alma mater, UMass-Lowell.

(snip)

Tsongas becomes the only woman in the state's 10-member House delegation and the first to represent Massachusetts since 1983, when Republican Margaret Heckler left office.


Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_7196772

---

Updates initial post, sourcing New England Cable News:

Just announced. They have Tsongas winning with 49 percent. Some precincts still being counted.

[MadMaddie]

1. Oh I hope it's true!

[ProSense]

2. The bostonchannel: Tsongas 51% with 86% reporting

Race called for Tsongas.

[wisteria]

3. I hope this lead grows. Great news. n/t

[bluestateguy]

4. I'm pleased, but this is a lackluster result

She should have put this in the bag weeks ago.

Had she lost it would have been a major embarrassment and at the top of the list of the RNC's weekly talking points.

[ProSense]

5. But she won, and the RNC has nothing to talk about. n/t

[AlGore-08.com]

11. Not true - - if her margin of victory is smaller than past elections, they will claim it's a sign

That support for Democrats in the various 2008 races is overstated and/or the momentum is swinging back to the Republicans and/or that there's more disaffection among grassroots Dems than is being reported.

If the polling immediately before the election or the exit polls show that some part of one party's platform was the cause of the rise in GOP votes (say... opposition to gay marriage is greater than support for it in this district), they will hype that to show that they are more in touch with the voters and it's just a matter of time before they roar back into power.

It's Politics 101.

[MADem]

15. She's the 'new kid'--husband Paul notwithstanding. Not everyone remembers him.

Six points is fine for the new kid. Marty was the incumbent, after all...he was always gonna win in a walk.

It'll depend on what she can deliver, and I think she'll do fine.

[Marrah_G]

20. I loved Paul Tsongas

I thought he would have made a great President, but he just didn't have the looks/charisma to pull in the voters.

[MADem]

26. I made an extra effort for his widow. I owe that guy big time.

He helped me out with an important, sorely needed and justified 'constituent service' when I was not getting any redress at all. One call from his peeps and I was "made whole," as they say. I never forgot it, and when Niki jumped in, I saw it as an opportunity to give back. I'm very happy she won.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Yo! She WON!

Way to find the dark cloud in that.

[MADem]

10. She wasn't gonna lose--I humped a ton o'geezers to the polls today! NT

[AlGore-08.com]

13. Thank you!

:yourock:

[MLFerrell]

25. Eeew! You humped GEEZERS? GROSS!

:)

[MADem]

28. In mah little red wagon too!!!! How's THAT for a visual!!!!!

Of course, I'm no spring chicken mahsef!!!!!!!!!

[Marrah_G]

19. You have to understand the make up of the area

There is a large pocket of red. The opponent also was the brother of a 911 pilot. MA lost alot of people that day and they used it to tug on peoples heart strings.

[MADem]

29. Precisely. An ANNOYING pocket of red. A STAIN on our great state!

And the opponent, I thought, was a craven fucking opportunist. He was absolutely shameless in waving the corpse of his brother--in fact, that's ALL he did.

His qualifications were: I'm the brother of a dead Nine Wun Wun pilot.

Gee, anything else, there, pal?

My brother DIED on Nine Wun Wun!!!!

AND STILL the guy got forty five percent. It shows ya how stupid people really are.

[DeSwiss]

6. Congrats!!!

:bounce: :grouphug: :bounce:

The Tsongas name runs deep blue, and I know she'll continue the legacy. And its a woman representative. We need more.

Plus, its another vote cast in overriding His Moranity's veto of the children's health care bill. ;)

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Go Niki!

This was being reported as a tight race yesterday, which I found surprising.

[Cha]

9. Maybe because the recan

guy's brother was killed on 9/11? And, I'm guessing they went ghouliani on it?

[MADem]

12. With all the numbers in, it's fifty one to forty five percent. Six points. That's good.

With 195 of 195 precincts reporting, Tsongas captured 54,363 votes, or 51 percent compared to 47,770 votes, or 45 percent, for Ogonowski.

Patrick Murphy, an Independent, had 2,170 votes, for 2 percent; Independent Kurt Hayes had 1,125 votes, for 1 percent, and Constitution Party Candidate Kevin Thompson had 494 votes, for 0 percent.

[tom_paine]

14. Good news.

[displacedtexan]

16. TPM has links and interesting reader comments about this race.

LINK

Here's a summary:

It seems that Tsongas wasn't exactly a dynamic candidate, but she
managed to defeat a war veteran who campaigned his ass off (and who lost
a brother on 9/11).

Many Dems thought it was in the bag and probably didn't bother to vote.

There were several Independent candidates siphoning off a few percentage points.

[rox63]

21. There was also some local resentment about Tsongas having lived out of district for several years

She only started renting a condo in the district when it became clear that Meehan's seat was going to open up. Several years earlier, she had moved to Charlestown, which is in antoher district. Ogonowski was a life-long resident of the district.

Despite the problems she had, I'm extremely glad Niki won. :woohoo:

[MADem]

35. Well, Niki had plenty of roots down here, too. And the hay farmer had to leave his hometown

to do a full career to retirement in the Air Force--he may have been 'local' for his last tour on USAF active duty, and certainly while in the National Guard (and that HAD to be part-time, weekend warrior duty), but I suspect he had tours outside of Massachusetts -- certainly outside the Merrimack Valley. He's being disingenuous if he suggests he never left home. And that farm he runs? It was his DEAD BROTHER's, that he bought for a song from the in-laws--he acts like a homespun guy, but he wouldn't be able to call himself "farmer Jim" if his poor brother hadn't plowed into that building.

There's just a dreadful smell of opportunism around the guy. I sometimes wonder if his brother wasn't a DEMOCRAT, too. You cannot get a sense of how the guy mangles the King's English from reading these blurbs and quotes, but his style is to pronounce 'this,' 'those,' or 'the' by substituting "D" for "Th"--he sounds like a thick nitwit:

For the past six years, Jim Ogonowski has run White Gate Farm, the 100-plus-acre hay and produce outfit that his late brother, John, a Vietnam veteran and airline pilot, purchased in the 1990s with the help of the state's Agricultural Preservation Restriction program. John Ogonowski was the captain of American Airlines Flight 11 that was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Until his retirement from the armed services this year, Ogonowski tended to his late brother's farm while working full time as a lieutenant colonel at Pease Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire. There, he commanded the Tanker Task Force Mission, planning and coordinating the movement and in-air refueling of fighter jets going between Pease and Southwest Asia or Europe. Jim Ogonowski retired after 28 years of combined service with the Air Force and the Guard, rather than accept a promotion to colonel that would have required him to move to Illinois, he said...He said he didn't want to leave his parents and his children - Charlie, 20, and Catherine, 18 - to say nothing of the 200-plus other relatives he says he has in the Merrimack Valley....

...At White Gate, Ogonowski continues a program started by his brother that gives farm plots to Cambodian refugees.

He lives not far from the farm in a renovated garage. Ogonowski, who often says he's just the "guy that lives next door," bought the property from his former in-laws for $70,000 a decade ago, to stay in the neighborhood after a divorce. His ex-wife lived down the street, and each parent saw the children daily.

"I don't know if there's a perfect environment in a divorce, but that's about as close to it as you can get," said Ogonowski, who remarried two years ago, to a woman on the hay-delivery route he assumed from his brother.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/09/life_on_the_trail_with_5th_district_candidates/?page=2

And our Niki wasn't selling flowers and hay, she was actually working for the community (as a Dean at Middlesex, among other duties), so I do think the Retired LIGHT Colonel's assertions were a cheap shot: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/09/tsongas_is_picking_up_the_pace_amid_already_intense_campaign?mode=PF

Tsongas grew up on military bases in three continents, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and went to high school in Japan. She was on a ship traveling from San Francisco to Tokyo at 14 when she caught a radio broadcast of John F. Kennedy's nomination speech in 1960, a moment of optimism and opportunity that she said kindled her political interest.

She met Paul Tsongas at a party in Washington, D.C., in 1967, when she was a Smith College student on summer break and he was a congressional intern. After graduation, she spent a year in New York as a social worker, then moved to Lowell in 1969 to marry and help Paul with his first bid for City Council. That campaign and all that followed have been about the desire to effect change, she said.

"That's the thing - I don't want to say inherited - that we shared all along," she said, speaking of her relationship with Paul. "It's not just enough to be against something. You have to be for something, and if you're for something you have to commit to follow through and make sure that that change takes place."

Tsongas spent 35 years in Lowell - including 10 years going back and forth to Washington - as a worker for nonprofits, a mother of three, a partner in politics, and the rock in the family during Paul's fights with the cancer that was first discovered in 1983. She also earned a law degree in 1988 and ran a small practice in Lowell before Paul's 1991-92 presidential run.

After her husband's death in 1997, she served on a variety of Lowell boards, including a city commission that oversaw management of the city's minor-league ballpark and the Tsongas Arena. She also accepted a position at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, creating a department to raise money for the public institution, engage the community, and elevate the school's profile. This year, she took an unpaid leave from her job there as dean of external affairs to run for office.

Four years ago, Tsongas bought a townhouse in Charlestown and moved out of Lowell. She wanted to be closer to her older two daughters. She continued to work in Lowell and consider it home, she said.

She rented an apartment in a converted downtown mill in Lowell when it appeared Martin T. Meehan might leave Congress.

John Kerry's first run for Congress was in that district--he was a real cahpitbaggah, there, though, so he didn't make the cut. It gave him good experience, though. He learned a lot about what NOT to do from that run...

[Tesha]

17. It astonishes me that 45% of MA-5 residents can be *THAT* stupid.

(I'm assuming that another 1% are rich, greedy, and
proud of it and that explains *THEIR* votes.)

Tesha

[Marrah_G]

22. It's an area with a few large red pockets

Also the 911 guilt trip they played constantly tugged at less informed people's hearts. (the opponents brother was a 911 pilot and we lost alot of MA people that day)

[Tesha]

24. (FYI: One of my friends (from North Andover) died on AA11 that day.) (NT)

[Marrah_G]

27. I'm so sorry n/t

:hug:

[Tesha]

33. Thank you. (NT)

[mreilly]

23. I live in a rural part of the 5th district...

... and it seems split down the middle between enlightened Boston suburbanites like me and dumbass yoyos whose sole purpose in following politics is to piss and moan about taxes. Schools falling apart? "I want my tax cut!" (because these types couldn't give a crap about education anyhow) Bridges collapsing (or in a seemingly permanent state of disrepair)? "I want my tax cut!" Iraq war lasts for several years and drains the U.S. treasury? "Great, I love the war, but I want my tax cut!" You know the usual drill - they get their talking points from the odious Barbara Anderson, who has never seen an issue from Hurricane Katrina to the O.J. Simpson trial that wasn't worthy of calling for a tax cut.

Ogonowski was a perfect candidate for them - offered nothing except the usual platitude of BS promises (he even managed to claim that rescinding Bush's tax cuts for the rich would take a $4000 out of the average taxpayer's pocket; more misleading and dishonest math from the GOP) and a platform against illegal immigration. He cloaked himself in that silly "I'm not a Washington insider " mantle that politicians seem to think will get them elected these days. Sorry, but I'd rather not vote for Joe Blow in a pickup truck who is pretending to be "just folks" as meanwhile he recites page after page of the RNC handbook and has a bankroll mysteriously higher than the "guy on the street" persona he's masquerading behind. And am I the only one who is fed up with the blatant hypocrisy of these anti-government politicians who rant and rave about Big Fed as meanwhile they want a job working for that very same institution?

Ogonowski offered little to nothing about what he might actually do of value for the 5th district, but then the people who support these kind of idiots don't seem to be capable of thinking this stuff through anyhow so it didn't matter to them.

[MADem]

31. And I will bet you those same whiners don't say shit at town meeting, either.

Or go to school committee or other meetings, or even weigh in when their town does something incredibly STUPID with their money. To say nothing of running for local office to try to keep costs down....!

Ogonowski's main qualification: "My BROTHER DIED on NAHN WUN WUN!!!!!!" Dumb as a post, too....

Excellent analysis of the clown, there--well done.

[MADem]

30. It's a combination of stupidity, greed and the bullshit reason in post 29, above.

You've got a whole passle of uber-rich "I GOT MIIIIINE" types living in what used to be a few nice, upper middle class towns who drove out the regular folk and make life unbearable for those who hang on, annoyed that their hometown has been so corrupted.

Then, you've got that mouth-breathing group that wave the flags, and think supporting Bush=supporting troops=supporting GOP. No capability for independent, reasoned thought.

And lastly, the "Well, we HAVE to vote for him...after all, his BROTHER died on NAHN WUN WUN!!!"

[Stuckinthebush]

32. My brother in law living in Concord

is one of those stupid MA-5 residents.

I was up there two weeks ago and he was complaining about Tsongas and taxes. He's always bitching about Ted Kennedy.

He thinks he is rich because his parents are. I told him that he is actually very middle class and needs to start thinking that way.

Whatcha gonna do?

[MethuenProgressive]

18. Ogonowski was a Rove product,

Even used a photo of his brother's plane crashing into the WTC in his TV ads...
That kind of advertising, and Rovian propaganda, is very effective.
Just ask John Kerry.

[MADem]

34. What he is, is a fucking MORON!!! Really!! I just saw the portly clown on NECN

He wuz tawkin bout DUH Demcrats and DUH Republicans...a major "DIS and DAT, DEEZE and DOZER" type.

I guess DEEZE people who didn't vote for him are glad they outnumbered DOZE people that did!! And DIS election result will hopefully motivate DAT clown to give up aspiring for political office.

Agggh--it was PAINFUL to hear. Worse than I remembered!!!!

Christ, it would have been embarrassing if a guy who spoke with the very same skill level as MonkeyBush took a seat in the Massachusetts delegation! One thing our crew can do, and smartly, too, is string a sentence together!!

[rox63]

36. Unfortunately, I've got relatives from this area that sound exactly like that n/t

[MADem]

37. But dey ain't runnin' fer no Congreshinal seat, eh? Or claimin' dat dey

have extra credit cuz dere brudda died on Nine Wun Wun?

I frankly wonder if the accent, along with his faux outsider outrage and his sketchy command of facts, was a put-on, too--I just can't see a guy supposedly turning down USAF 0-6 and TALKING like that (I have to wonder if he failed of selection, too, frankly--but that info is privileged, so unless someone from his promotion group pipes up, we'll never know).

I can sit here and get all snarky and shitty about what the USAF does and doesn't do (and sometimes, for wicked fun, I do), but one thing I will say for them, they prize and promote their ARTICULATE officers. And that bozo made an effort to be anything but!!!

[rox63]

38. Some of my aunts and uncles say things like "turdy-tree" instead of "thirty-three"

It's fairly common among less-educated New Englanders with French-Canadian backgrounds.

[MADem]

39. That Frenchy accent is a different thing altogether, though!

It's like Jean Chretien, but not so strong! It has a certain charm, that.

This guy is just a dese and dozer--I honestly think he thought (or tink he tot) he was appealing to the Lawrencian "blue collar" fellahs. Pandering, more like...!