Sen. Tsongas' Widow Elected to House

Oct 17, 01:37 AM

Current Headlines: Niki Tsongas, who was the wife of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas, won a special election Tuesday to represent Massachusetts in the House.

Tsongas, a Democrat, narrowly defeated Republican Jim Ogonowski, who hoped to become the first member of his party in several years to represent Massachusetts. She racked up 51 percent of the vote to 45 percent for Ogonowski, The Bostonist Web site reported.

In her first run for elective office, Tsongas, a dean at Middlesex County College, won the district north of Boston that her husband represented for four years in the 1970s. She is the first woman elected from Congress in Massachusetts since 1983.

Paul Tsongas served a single term in the U.S. Senate, giving up his seat in 1985 after being diagnosed with cancer. He ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1992, defeating Bill Clinton in New Hampshire.

His cancer later returned, killing him in 1997 at the age of 55.