Tsongas: Let Ogonowski speak

Illustrating a sticky political situation over a sensitive day, Democrat Niki Tsongas today weighed in for the first time on the simmering controversy over whether her chief opponent in the Fifth Congressional District race, Republican Jim Ogonowski, should speak at Tuesday's State House ceremony commemorating the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Ogonowski, whose brother was killed in the attacks and who spoke at the ceremony the past four years, was not asked to come back this year. However, added to the program as the keynote speaker was Martin Meehan, a former US representative whose wife is chairing Democrat Niki Tsongas's campaign against Ogonowski.

"I was surprised to learn that Jim Ogonowski was not invited to speak in Tuesday’s ceremony at the State House honoring those lost on September 11, 2001, and I think he should be invited to participate in the ceremony as he has in previous years," Tsongas said this afternoon in a statement. "The Ogonowski family suffered a tremendous loss, and his is an important voice on this day of remembrance."