Hearty congratulations to Niki Tsongas, who won tonight’s primary in the MA-05 district. Tsongas is speaking right now (on NECN), and reports that Eileen Donoghue just called to congratulate her on her win.
With 98% reporting, the results are:
Tsongas: 36%
Donoghue: 32%
Eldridge: 14%
Finegold: 13%
Miceli: 4%
Jim Ogonowski, of course, won the GOP primary.
We’re all squarely behind Niki Tsongas for the general election on October 16. GO NIKI!!
Please share widely!
We need to make sure Tsongas wins the general, but that’s not all.
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PROGRESSIVES: We need you for the Marzilli campaign in the Fourth Middlesex (Billerica, Burlington, Woburn, Lexington, Arlington). Don’t put away the blue tennis shoes!
Jim has been there for us for the past 16 years.
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He has been a strong progressive voice through the darkest days of the Finneran years. He has been a junkyard dog for progressive politics, sitting in the informal sessions keeping an eye out for the nonsense that leadership would love to sneak through when nobody is watching.
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He has been a real leader in issues surrounding the environment, and has taken on many of the cash-draining sacred cows that divert revenues from public use (the abolishment of the antiquated county government is a prime example).
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He is a full-time, hard working state representative. You can get him on the phone, and he has a long, solid, dependable, consistent track record of taking correct stands on major policy issues.
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Statewide, he has a reputation of being a leader among progressive Democrats, and was an early supporter of Deval and Robert Reich.
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I am sure there’s lots more to say about Jim that would connect to a BMG audience, but I will leave that for future discussions when we actually begin to focus on the senate race.
that much more progressive than the alternatives Natale or Murphy? Natale has stood up for SSM and Murphy has been a DFA favorite.
…at the Hudson Portuguese Club. We were a little subdued, but everyone is very much behind Niki, we need to unite and send her to Congress now! It was a well fought race, and Jamie really did get to define many of the issues – if he would have had $1 million to spend on it, you'd be seeing a very different result.
To all my friends from The Eldridge campaign, thank you for a wonderful half year! Onward and upward – I'll be fund-raising for Tom Allen in the Maine senate race for 2008, look for a matching funds diary soon and help send Susan Collins off into the sunset!
Just got home from the Eldridge party, the most exciting time as the results were getting to us was when we were 50 votes ahead of Niki (with about 6000 each) and the rest were far behind. That said, Jamie made a gracious speech and endorsed Niki for the general election. He will be holding a phone bank for her this Thursday at his Acton headquarters. Exciting, nerve-racking night. Everyone on the campaign did an excellent job.
The good thing about Democrats is that we all come together. As Niki said, we need to send the White House a message and not tolerate anyone who supports a war based on lies and false premises. Eileen Donoghue and Jamie Eldridge made very gracious speeches. Despite an intense race, I believe all the candidates made eachother better informed and more knowledgeable. I also saw Niki Tsongas grow in this campaign.
I've enjoyed (mostly!) the spirit, energy and commitment that challenged Niki to be the best she could be and not accept the status quo, as well as a heck of a good discussion.
Have to say also that while some at BMG supported others, you've been open and more than fair.
My view is George Bush still has too many allies in Washington. Let's not take a chance that he gets another Repubican who's position is victory or bust in an unwinnable civil war.
Let's go Dems and Progressives!
And we see that Eldridge generated a result that can only be described as pathetic. This led PDA to write and say “time to regroup”.
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I replied:
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… and approach the problem from the wrong end again. I am sorry to say that this outcome says two things: (1) our system of representative government is severely broken; (2) the electorate are gullible, uneducated idiots who are suffering from a Stockholm Syndrome: they’re safe in being powerless and dependent on a political life of useless petition without end.
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The system is crying out to be fixed. The electorate, however, may not be worth saving.
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Given the way our system is so badly broken I have been carrying the idea that the absence of Meehan (regardless his excellent voting record) has not been felt. When he politicked his way to U-Mass, the change felt was but a mild thud. Being without a voice for our district in Congress has left me to question if the people are being represented at all.
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Having a full house of Jamie-like individuals would surely push some change but getting there will require a fundamental shift in the people.
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How to fix the problems? Change at both levels is next to impossible. People are who they are and the system is rigged to remain as it is.
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I have resigned to give up and, should conditions become so awful, pack up my family and get the hell out. Re-grouping may well mean retreating and allowing the mess to implode all by itself.
I wonder what IRV would have done to this contest? I suspect that most of the Eldridge vote would probably have gone to Donoghue.
Well, well, well, The first words that come to mind. are HA,HA,HA but that would be cruel, and I’m not a progressive, so I’ll leave cruel reserved for the people who do it so well. 14% for “Jamie” he could not get double digit votes, should tell you progressives to do like one blogger on this post, give up and move out of the country (Hopefully) You endorse Jamie…and slammed me with nasty names etc…I hope your cereal goes down well this morning!!! He is a skunk and should start his own party, the progressive party and not ruin my Democratic party and then he should take the rest of you folks with him.Fear not,he will think 8K votes is a mandate and he’ll run for Ressors seat, here is a news flash, in writing, So you can come back and get me like I got your endorsement. Ressor is not going to retire she is going to announce she will not seek another term, so Jamie will have to decide Representative or Senate, can’t run for both.
Nikki will win, because the Republicans in this State (run by country clubbers who have $1,000.00 per couple dinners, and get no attendance, and then the arrogant buffoons get mad at working people for NOT coming, their party will implode under their own weight.) put up a two faced idiot who is at best a RINO at worst a Progressive in disguise…And why vote for an imitation, when you can have the real thing!! ..
The two “R's” that come onto this site will stand up for their man, while finishing
thier Champagne becasue “O” got 89 percent…He should have got 100% he ran against a no one, who spent nothing, and the State “R” supported “O” and would not even mention the other candidate…And the State party “will not support anyone until after a primary”…Fat Cat B.S.!!!So I've now annoyed both sides…Think I'll vote for the independent at least he is not a progressive and has convictions!!!!!!
real spirited campaign. I live in Tierneys district but read the Lawrence Trib. I would have supported Finegold myself I think–just from watching his prinicpled involvement in local issues over the years. Ogonowski is going to be formidable. He has been on Boston talk shows a lot and will get the kind of favorable treatment from them that other Repubs get. Dont take anything for granted—and congratulations to Niki Tsongas from me.
Not my district, but congratulations to Niki and all the others. A lot of candidates looked at that race and opted out.
I generally find it tiresome when blogs talk about the press (with the obvious exception of Media Nation), but why the hell was this race NOT lead story in the Globe today?
As an Eldridge supporter, I’m quite happy with the way things turned out. I always knew that victory was a million-to-one shot. That being said, Eldridge proved that he was just as serious a candidate as anyone else in the race, despite significantly fewer funds than everyone else (except Miceli), low initial name recognition outside of the southern corner of the district, and yes, running as “the progressive” in a district that doesn’t include Cambridge, Amherst, or Davis Square.
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Let’s also think about the one issue that dominated the race: Healthcare – Jamie championed single payer healthcare and forced the other candidates to take positions (and evolve their positions) in ways that they likely would not have otherwise done. His campaign framed the debate, period.
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A couple of questions I’ll be interested in seeing answers to as the numbers get analyzed:
1. Of course, how did Eldridge do in Sen. Resor’s Senate district? My hunch is that his showing was quite strong.
2. When the final numbers come out for what each campaign spent through the primary, I’m fascinated to see each candidate’s dollars per vote. What did Niki’s victory cost per vote? (What did Finegold’s 4th place finish cost per vote?)
Every community that Eldridge won is also in Senator Resor’s state Senate District, though there were towns that Jamie lost that are also in that district.
Well, I have one of my answers…
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Within the towns that are in both MA-05 and the Middlesex & Worcester State Senate district*, here are the numbers and percentages:
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Donoghue: 1154, 12.88%
Eldridge: 4632, 51.71%
Finegold: 396, 4.42%
Miceli: 142, 1.59%
Tsongas: 2634, 29.40%
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Let’s be clear: in a 5-way race, Jamie Eldridge got over 50% of the vote, clearly introduced himself to the district, and built an incredibly strong organization and base of support.
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Of course, I adore Sen. Resor and hope that she’s with us in the Senate for a while to come. But if and when she does decide to retire, Jamie is in an incredible position to win that Senate seat.
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*The Congressional district does not include the towns of Marlborough, Northborough, Southborough, and Westborough. Additionally, these numbers only include precincts 2, 3, and 5 of Sudbury, as only those precincts are in the Senate district.
Eldridge didn’t really “introduce himself” to the district so much as he won the parts that he already serves as state representative. That said, he did well in that part of the district and I hope that he takes the opportunity to move up to the state Senate.
Tsongas won so hopefully all you anti-Nikki Elridge supporters can buck up and support her or you might get Rep. Ogo. Its better to win than be self-righteous anyway.
For you “progressives” out there, there's still a candidate in this race who is going to champion some progressive stances that Niki will not. Take a look at him. I work with him in the construction trades and he's a really brilliant guy. Patrick Murphy. http://www.sendmurphytocongress.com He'll be the only one out there talking about a single payer health care system, and he'll be the only candidate to challenge both the Tsongas and Ogonowski campaigns of slogans and jargon. And knowing the network of regular voters that he does in his hometown of Lowell, and in the other towns where we work often and where he went to school–he'll definitely surprise a lot of people.
Never hearda him never hearda you so I dont think your guys a winnah.