Left In Lowell

Last week, Evan Lehmann of the Sun’s Washington bureau reported that Congresswoman Niki Tsongas campaign account is down to about $11,000 and it owes her $50,000 for a loan she made to her campaign last fall.

Tsongas was able to raise close to $5 million for the special MA 5th District congressional race which she won. But in a few months she will need to campaign again.

Kurt Hayes, who ran as an Independent during the special election, has announced that he will run as a Republican this time. With all due respect to Hayes, who I found to be an articulate, prepared and knowledgeable candidate, the Massachusetts Republican party is not going to be able to provide a lot of help, financial or otherwise. They just do not have their act together.

As for Tsongas, needless to say, she will not need the kind of funds she needed for the special election where she had formidable opponents and it was a wide open race.

However, a Representative needs funds in their campaign war chest not so much for the race itself but to make the kinds of contribution to the party and other races that is expected of them. Furthermore, she needs funds for the day to day political activities.

According to my calculations the majority of her money came from out of the District; this may make it a bit more difficult to raise money. The other issue is Marty Meehan. As the Sun reported today, the U. Mass Lowell Chancellor has close to $5 million in his campaign fund, “The total included $15,373 in donations that were contributed from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Meehan took over as UMass Lowell’s chancellor in July.” I hope those who gave that money to the former Congressperson were as generous to the sitting one.