Sioux City Journal

Tsongas' widow beats brother of pilot killed in Sept. 11 for Massachusetts seat in Congress

1:00 AM

Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

LOWELL, Mass. (AP) -- The widow of 1992 presidential candidate Paul Tsongas defeated the brother of an American Airlines pilot who died in the Sept. 11 attacks Tuesday in a special election for the U.S. House.

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

Flanked by her three daughters and other relatives, Tsongas said she was humbled by her victory but eager to help the district's residents, many of whom told her stories of heartache.

"To all of these people and the countless others like them, my message is simple: `Let's get to work,"' she said.

Tsongas, 61, could be sworn in as early as Wednesday to fill the northeastern Massachusetts district 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.

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.

"Tonight we sent a message to Washington that people are fed up with the partisan politics of Republicans and Democrats," Ogonowski said. "It is a message we must keep sending, and we will continue to send."

The National Republican Congressional Committee said in a news release before Ogonowski conceded the race that Democrats had a reason to worry based on the results.

"In a race that should have been won in a walk, Democrats were forced to funnel a massive amount of resources and dispatch an all-star cast of liberal icons at the 11th hour in order to ensure victory," the committee said.

Republicans had blasted Tsongas for accepting campaign help from former President Clinton, who came to the district to campaign for Tsongas.

Tsongas and Ogonowski, whose brother John died when his plane was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center, cast the race as a referendum on President Bush's policies or a public upbraiding of the Democratically controlled Congress.

Bush and Congress have lagged in recent public opinion polls, and the race may have served as a harbinger of the 2008 presidential campaign. Primaries and caucuses for the White House nominations begin in less than three months.

A flashpoint for Tsongas was Bush's veto of expanded funding for the State Children's Health Insurance program.

The House is to vote on a veto override Thursday, and Tsongas lambasted Ogonowski, 50, for refusing to say before the election how he would vote. Tsongas, a community college dean, said she would vote for the override.

Ogonowski, a farmer who retired from the Air Force in June after a 28-year career, said he wouldn't declare his position on the SCHIP bill because he wanted to use his first day in Congress to try to negotiate an alternative.

Tsongas' husband died in 1997 of side-effects from the cancer that prompted him to retire from the Senate in 1985. He beat Clinton in the 1992 New Hampshire primary during a period of remission.

Also on the ballot Tuesday were independent candidates Kurt Hayes and Patrick Murphy and Constitution Party candidate Kevin Thompson.