Tierney defeats Baker

LYNN-U.S. Rep. John Tierney?s Tuesday night victory over Republican challenger Richard A. Baker, Jr. stands in sharp contrast to the tough races that set the stage for a decisive 1998 win.Unofficial results as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday gave the Democrat incumbent a 70 percent to 30 percent lead over Baker with Tierney beating the Republican 83 percent to 16 percent in Lynn.The win and similar ones across the country from the White House down last night gives Democrats a chance to set a decisive tone they have not commanded in years.?I believe we have a vision and opportunity to get us out of the trouble we are in,” Tierney said.Tierney beat Republican Peter Torkildsen in a 1998 campaign billed as a “threepeat” match between Torkildsen, who represented the 6th Congressional District from 1992 to 1996, and Tierney.Tierney was a 43-year-old Salem lawyer and political newcomer in 1994 when he emerged from a field of Democratic challengers to lose by just 3 percent of the vote to Torkildsen.Their 1996 rematch saw Tierney best Torkildsen by 371 votes. Two years later, Roll Call, a newspaper covering Congress, named Tierney one of the 12 most vulnerable congressional incumbents.Tierney drew on organized labor support to win in 1998 and carved out employment and health care as his niche issues in Congress. His star rose in 2006 when the Democrats gained a congressional majority allowing Tierney to foreign affairs and intelligence to his resume.Tierney could have easily been talking about himself on Oct. 28 when he introduced Kerry prior to a speech at North Shore Community College by saying, “We need senators to be experts on a range of issues and John has been just that.”In the last year he has come to Lynn to tout work force training programs, voted to support the College Affordability Act, and refrained during the primary election season from weighing in on the side of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.Tierney Tuesday said he will work during his next term on higher education and elementary and primary school initiatives. He said Obama will set a new tone for American foreign affairs.?I think he is going to reengage with friends and new friends. People expect us to lead but they feel we should be listened to.”Baker was one of three Republicans to challenge leading Massachusetts Democrats Tuesday. John Cunningham of Revere opposed U.S. Rep. Edward Markey in the 8th Congressional District and Jeffrey Beatty of Harwich challenged U.S. Sen. John Kerry along with Libertarian Robert Underwood of Springfield.Baker, 49, of West Newbury, made the economy his campaign centerpiece. He warned in a September Item interview that the United States must create manufacturing jobs and not become a service economy.He favored drilling for oil in Alaska and gradually pulling troops out of Iraq.