It hasn't gotten much attention outside of the Boston suburbs and truly hardcore political junkies. But there was a congressional election today. The topline is that the Democrat, Nikki Tsongas, wife of the late Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Paul Tsongas, won. But the details are much more interesting. As of 10:23 PM, with 88% of precincts reporting, Tsongas has only 51% vs 45% for the Republican Jim Ogonowski.

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.

So what happened? Bowers had an interesting post yesterday evening analyzing Tsongas' expected narrow victory. His basic verdict is that Tsongas was a lousy candidate, nominated largely on the basis of her husband's reputation, and picked by an "ossifying" local political machine that hadn't faced a real race in decades. But Chris isn't putting that forward just as an excuse; he notes that the same probably applies to the machines that run numerous solidly Dem districts around the country.

There's so much bad data out there for the Republicans today that I'm inclined to think that this is the issue -- a really good Republican candidate, a really bad Democratic candidate. But only fools spin excuses and rationales for data that doesn't square with their assumptions. So I'm not sure I'm ready to let go of this one yet.

Late Update: TPM Reader CL checks in from district ...

This is my district.

Among progressives there was a lot of resentment that 1) Tsongas beat out a great progressive candidate in the primary and that she 2) was essentially crowned by the local Democratic machine, without having done anything whatsoever to deserve it.

Oganowski, it must be said, was also a far better candidate than the usual Republican types. Not when it cames to "ideas" of course, but rather when it came down to simple old style retail politics. He was everywhere and seemed to attend every dopey local town event possible. Tsongas on the other hand was virtually invisible.

Thus a lot of progressive folks stayed home. I almost did, but thought better of it, held my nose and then voted for her.

That's my take. I may be wrong.

TPM Reader DP chimes in too ...

As someone who volunteered on the Tsongas campaign way back when, I'm not surprised the widow is not the most charismatic of candidates. However, I think an important element of this election is the GOP candidate's biography -- his military background and the loss of his brother on 9/11. People still carry a soft spot for the victims and relatives of that day, and in a low information election I can imagine people using 9/11 as a tie-breaker. I don't think this carries over to national campaigns, however, where the focus is more intense and the campaign is more high profile.