Coverage From The Inside of The MA-05 Special Election

Hub Politics ^ | 10/16/07 | Rob Willington

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

We’ve got good shots at the Agriculture Commissioner and Attorney General races. Lt. Gov, probably will stay Dem, but there are enough candidates to possibly force a runoff if there’s a big Republican surge.

The state legislature...um...we’re not so confident about picking one of those off now. We weren’t able to field as many candidates to vulnerable seats as we would have liked. Amazingly, we didn’t even field a candidate for an open GOP house seat and the Dem took it because he ran unopposed, though we got a previously held Dem seat in the same manner, so they cancelled each other out. We’ll probably gain seats, but not enough for a majority.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’m still holding out hope for Sammy Kershaw to beat Mitchie, but I’ve never seen any polling data. I’m wondering if we get close enough to a majority in the legislature if some DINOs would switch over to make it official. Similarly, up in MS, I hope we’re able to keep the State Senate we got through party switches.

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

Oh yeah, we might have some DINOs switch over. We’re hoping we can do that for the Senate if we grab two senate seats on the west bank of the Mississippi River and narrow the gap there. Being on the Eastbank, I can hear a lot of the GOP radio ads.

Also, we’ve got the Jefferson Parish president’s race, where Aaron Broussard, he of the “crying on Meet the Press fame” is up. I really don’t know about this one. No high profile candidate jumped in, but the sole Republican, Allen Leone, is a big winner in the yard sign count throughout the densely populated neighborhoods on the Eastbank. Many people here haven’t forgiven him for sending the pump operators out of the parish.

[JulieRNR21]

I agree with you on the border security issue.....Jim Ogonowski’s close race in MA shows the GOP can win on that issue!

[JulieRNR21]

5th Congressional District Race: Tsongas wins

Democrat Niki Tsongas of Lowell edged Republican Jim Ogonowski of Dracut in the race for the 5th Congressional District Tuesday night.

Tsongas won 51 percent, or 54,363 votes, compared to 45 percent or 47,770 votes for Ogonowski with all precincts reporting.

Also on the ballot were Independent candidates Kurt Hayes of Boxborough and Patrick Murphy of Lowell, as well as Constitution Party candidate Kevin Thompson of Brockton.

Tsongas 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, the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

Here are the votes for local communities:

Andover:

Tsongas: 2,860

Ogonowski: 2,957

Hayes: 46

Murphy: 46

Thompson: 12

Haverhill:

Tsongas: 3,840

Ogonowki: 3,709

Hayes: 69

Murphy: 103

Thompson: 37

Lawrence:

Tsongas: 4,000

Ogonowski: 1,575

Hayes: 50

Murphy: 112

Thompson: 55

Methuen:

Tsongas: 2,935

Ogonowski: 3,522

Hayes: 41

Murphy: 74

Thompson: 18

[fieldmarshaldj]

45% for Og, exactly what I predicted.