The results are in and Niki Tsongas, widow of former Senator Paul Tsongas, has won the special election to replace former Congressman Marty Meehan. Tsongas managed to hold on despite a late surge from Eileen Donoghue, who closed what had been a double-digit gap in the polls to just five points on primary day. Here are the results from the Boston Globe.
What's interesting to me how close the actual results were to the most recent SUSA poll, despite all the disclaimers that polling for a day-after Labor Day primary would be mostly meaningless. Here they are lined up:
| 9/4 Result | 8/30 Poll | |
| Niki Tsongas | 36% | 40% |
| Eileen Donoghue | 31% | 29% |
| Jamie Eldridge | 14% | 15% |
| Barry Finegold | 13% | 9% |
| Jim Miceli | 6% | 3% |
Every candidate was within four points of where they polled, and they finished in the predicted order.
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