House Special Election Contender Ponders Kerry Challenge

House Special Election Contender Ponders Kerry Challenge
By Jessica Benton Cooney, CQ Staff


Massachusetts Republican Jim Ogonowski, encouraged by his better-than-expected political debut in an October U.S. House special election won by Democrat Niki Tsongas , is pondering a bid for an even bigger target this fall: the Senate seat defended by four-term Sen. John Kerry , the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. Ogonowski, who held Tsongas to a 51 percent to 45 percent win in the Democratic-leaning 5th District, told CQ Politics that he may decide about the Senate race within the next few weeks.

Some Republicans may have mixed feelings, as he has received some entreaties to seek a general election rematch against Tsongas in the 5th, which reaches from suburbs and exurbs of Boston to the New Hampshire border. But the only three Republicans who have expressed serious interest in challenging Kerry all are low-profile figures — and a Senate bid by Ogonowski would at least give the Republicans a recently news-making candidate for what appears a distinctly longshot bid.

After drawing no Republican opponent in his 2002 Senate race and coasting to an 80 percent victory over Libertarian Party nominee Michael E. Cloud, Kerry took 62 percent of his home state’s vote in his challenge to President Bush. CQ Politics rates the 2008 Senate race as Safe Democratic.

Yet Ogonowski was initially seen as having little chance of seriously challenging Tsongas — the widow of the late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Paul Tsongas — in the 5th District race to succeed eight-term Democrat Martin T. Meehan, who resigned in July to become a college chancellor.

Ogonowski, a farmer and former Navy aviator, received some media attention as the brother of the late John Ogonowski, the American Airlines pilot whose Flight 11 out of Boston on Sept. 11, 2001 was hijacked by al-Qaida extremists and flown into the north tower of New York City’s World Trade Center. But the Republican hopeful attributed his strong performance in the House race to his efforts to cast himself as a political outsider, in a campaign in which he ran as a Republican centrist and distanced himself from President Bush on some issues.

Stating that his congressional election “started a movement in Massachusetts,” Ogonowski said “people want change.” He added, “Supporters from across the state need me to run.” :eyes:

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He couldn't win in a special election (no incumbent) in the most conservative district in the state. What will happen when he tries to get votes in more liberal places like Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, Amherst, Northhampton, etc? His pitch won't fly very far, and will land with a thud.