Tomorrow, as we all know, voters in Massachusetts fifth district will vote en masse (10% if that) in the special election to replace Marty Meehan. Despite the overwhelmingly liberal lean of the district, many have become worried due to the lackluster campaign of Niki Tsongas. Despite the strong personal story of Jim Ogonowski, and Tsongas’ poor campaign, I strongly doubt she’ll lose simply because it’s Massachusetts. I could easily be wrong of course, that’s just my thought.
To the point however, should she win by a hair, (by which I’d classify by less than five percent) this might prompt Ogonowski to challenge john Kerry in the senate race. Hackett almost beat Schmidt, then tried to challenge dewine and I think the same could happen here. The biggest reason for this is that the Massachusetts republicans have a practically nonexistent bench. Hackett was forced out for the 06 senate race, but the Ohio dems had an okay bench back then, no where as good as it is now, but not as bad the Massachusetts republicans. If Ogonowski is drafted to challenge Kerry, the NRSC may be tempted to throw away millions into a race ultimately they can’t win without a massive anti-democratic/anti-incumbent mood. Millions wasted there is millions that can’t be spent in Alaska, Nebraska ect etc. a close race won’t look good on paper, but somehow I doubt it’ll be remembered in November. So tomorrow, let’s hope for a victory, just one small enough for them to get Ogonowski to jump into the senate race.