Election Day in Massachussets: The results are in!
This is the first Election Day in any contest since this blog started up, and an important one too: the special election in MA-05, opposing Democrat Niki Tsongas with Republican Jim Ogonowski. And the results are now in: Niki Tsongas is the next Representative, and Democrats kept the seat.
However it was way too close for comfort. With 88% of precints reporting, Tsongas is ahead by a small 51% versus 45%. Tsongas declared victory at about 9:10pm.
So the race did end up being even tighter than it looked a few days ago. This is deep Democratic territory we are talking about -- that a Democrat was held at 51% is very surprising! Naturally Ogonowski did not run as a partisan Republican. He called the war a mistake, and tried to distance himself from the Administration. Ogonowski's campaign will certainly be looked at as a blueprint for other Republican runs in the Northeast next year.
The results today will certainly hearten many Republicans worried about 2008 -- just as their near-win in OH-02 in the summer of 2005 gave hope to Democrats more than it demoralized them. Will today's results go as far as helping Republicans in their recruitment process?
One last interesting fact: Nicky Tsongas is the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the House since... 1983! Speaks wonders about gender equality in politics.
However it was way too close for comfort. With 88% of precints reporting, Tsongas is ahead by a small 51% versus 45%. Tsongas declared victory at about 9:10pm.
So the race did end up being even tighter than it looked a few days ago. This is deep Democratic territory we are talking about -- that a Democrat was held at 51% is very surprising! Naturally Ogonowski did not run as a partisan Republican. He called the war a mistake, and tried to distance himself from the Administration. Ogonowski's campaign will certainly be looked at as a blueprint for other Republican runs in the Northeast next year.
The results today will certainly hearten many Republicans worried about 2008 -- just as their near-win in OH-02 in the summer of 2005 gave hope to Democrats more than it demoralized them. Will today's results go as far as helping Republicans in their recruitment process?
One last interesting fact: Nicky Tsongas is the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the House since... 1983! Speaks wonders about gender equality in politics.
posted by Taniel at
10:08 PM
2 Comments:
When Meehan first ran to Congress from the Fifth (which is actually one of the less Democratic districts in Massachusetts--though admittedly that is not saying much) in 1992 he won with only 52% of the vote against GOP ex-Congressman Paul Cronin. So it really should not be surprising that this was a close race--open races for this seat tend to be that way. Yes, Lowell and Lawrence are heavily Democratic, and Democrats easily win the district in presidential races, but Republicans like Romney have always done well here--especially in the wealthy suburbs in the southern part of the district--in state elections.
By
Anonymous, At
16 October, 2007 22:47
This district has been close before. In 1990, the Democratic incumbent only scraped by a Republican by 51%-49%. In 1984 that same Democrat won the district when it was open by just 53%-47%.
By
Anonymous, At
17 October, 2007 10:26
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home