Tsongas wins in Fifth District

LOWELL - Democrat Niki Tsongas held off a strong challenge from Republican Jim Ogonowski Tuesday to win the special election in the Fifth Congressional District and claim a seat once held by her late husband, the former US senator Paul Tsongas.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Tsongas had 51 percent of the vote. Ogonowski had 45 percent.

After the Associated Press called victory for her just after 9:15 p.m., a cheer erupted through the crowd of several hundred at Tsongas's victory party in downtown Lowell. The win makes Tsongas, 61, the first woman in the state's congressional delegation in 25 years.

Tsongas will fill a seat that has been held steadily by Democrats since 1974, when Paul Tsongas was first elected to the House.

Tsongas will be sworn in as soon as Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin certifies the election results and coordinates with the clerk of the US House, a Tsongas spokeswoman said Tuesday night. Her campaign organization said the process was expected to take a day or two and expressed hoped she would be sworn in in time for Thursday's vote on whether to overturn the veto of the S-CHIP children's healthcare bill.

Tsongas, 61, drew on the experience she gained alongside her husband and ran a campaign with a Washington focus. From the start, she called the election a referendum on President Bush and the war in Iraq, supporting a timetable to begin troop withdrawal. She also stressed her support for the children's health insurance bill that Bush vetoed this month and consistently accused Ogonowski of being indecisive on the issue.

Ogonowski, 50, a Dracut hay farmer and retired Air Force and Air National Guard officer, ran a populist-style campaign against "business as usual" in Washington and pledged to restore government to the people.

He made illegal immigration his top issue, staging a "No Amnesty" tour across the district and running ads critical of Tsongas's offer of in-state tuition and driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. He also tapped memories of his brother, John, a farmer and American Airlines captain who was killed when his plane was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

But interviews with voters Tuesday indicated Ogonowski ran aground on his support for keeping troops in Iraq.

"Ending the war is a really big issue," said Nancy Mercer, 66, a self-described liberal from Dracut who considered voting for Ogonowski as a likeable local but couldn't stomach his position on Iraq. "Most of us are sick of it and want it over with," she said. "Too many lives, too much money. A terrible, terrible waste."

Although Ogonowski called the Iraq invasion a mistake and criticized Bush for the handling of the war, he wanted to keep troops there until a victory that he defined as a safe and secure Iraq. Tsongas ran one television ad that pictured Bush under the "Mission Accomplished" banner and another that said, "One vote can help end this war: Yours."

While Paul Tsongas is revered in the district, his legacy cut both ways for Niki Tsongas, according to interviews Tuesday. Some were eager to support her as a tribute to her husband.

"I knew Paul very well," said Tim Balas, 54, a finish carpenter from Lowell. "He was a good man. He was one of the best politicians in Massachusetts. That's why I voted for his wife."

But others, particularly in Lowell, accused Niki Tsongas of opportunism. She won a five-way Democratic primary Sept. 4 but lost her home city by a 2-to-1 ratio to Lowell city councilor Eileen Donoghue. In the general election, Ogonowski's campaign criticized Tsongas for moving back into the district - after learning the seat might open earlier this year - from Charlestown, where she bought a townhouse four years ago.

"I knew Paul Tsongas; Niki Tsongas is no Paul Tsongas," said Harry Harris, 60, a retired educator who steadily voted for Paul Tsongas - for City Council up through the 1992 presidential primary - and said he knew him through Lowell's Greek community and other channels. Harris said Niki Tsongas was capitalizing on her last name and added that he voted for Ogonowski.

"Paul was a very sharp, articulate man that came up from the grass roots," Harris said. "He was born and raised in this city. He was part of this district."

Although the Fifth District is considered more politically moderate than the rest of the state - Republican gubernatorial candidates have fared well there in recent cycles, and unenrolled voters make up half the electorate - Democrats still heavily outnumber Republicans. And the district has elected Democrats to the House seat since 1974.

That meant Ogonowski had to run "a flawless campaign" to win, said David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. But the president's veto of a bill to expand healthcare for children didn't help his cause. Several voters said that children's healthcare followed the war as an issue that motivated them to go to the polls.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP, provides coverage to lower-income children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance; Congress recently passed a bipartisan bill to expand the program by raising the income threshold. Bush vetoed the bill Oct. 3, handing Tsongas an issue to use against Ogonowski, and she immediately pledged to vote to overturn that veto if elected. The House will consider the issue later this week.

Ogonowski said he supports expanding children's health insurance but opposed the S-CHIP bill as written, saying it might benefit children of illegal immigrants. But Ogonowski never said how he would vote on the veto.