There is Some Good News in a GOP Loss

The congressional election in Massachusetts yesterday resulted in a Dem win as expected, but the Dems can't be too comfortable with the final results. Here are a couple of thoughts on what happened. First, from Talking Points Memo:

That is weird. This is Massachusetts, after all, specifically the rim of suburbs to the northwest of Boston, Marty Meehan’s (D) old seat, the 5th district. This is strong Democratic territory. At Openleft.com, Chris Bowers says it’s a +10 Dem district. (By the way, among many other things, this is one of the best sites to get smart and candid analyses and number-crunches of stuff like this.) One of many eye-popping numbers about this race was that the Republican, Ogonowski, was crushing Tsongas among voters under 35.

And from Jules Crittendon:

Name-branded Tsongas trotted out Clintons and other lefty starpower, got heavy out-of-state financing, and only managed 51 percent. GOP take note. Sadly, you’re not going to get a lot of Republicans of Ogonowski’s caliber with a compelling stories like his around here.

It's not that hard to figure why this race was so close in a heavily Dem district. The latest Reuters-Zogby poll has Congress' approval rating at a whopping 11%. Even Dems are that enthused about voting for Dems. Candidates with a message of change, like Ogonowski, will have a decent chance in 2008, even against big name incumbents.