Tisei concedes Mass. 6th District race to Tierney

LYNN, Mass. (WHDH) -- Republican Richard Tisei on Wednesday conceded defeat in his hard-fought U.S. House race against incumbent Democrat John Tierney.

Tisei said in a statement on Wednesday that he congratulated Tierney on his narrow win.

The race came down to 5,000 votes. Tisei’s campaign had initially declined to concede the race, citing reports of voter intimidation in the city of Lynn. In his statement, Tisei said he would leave the investigation of those complaints to others.

“While I have concerns about reported irregularities in some areas of the district, I’ll leave any investigation of those matters to others, I’ll have no further comment on these matters,” Tisei said.

“There were unidentified people saying, ‘If you want to continue to get your welfare check,’ those people were coming up to go vote in the ballot box, to go vote outside the polling places. ‘If you want your welfare check, here’s how you’re going to vote’,” said Paul Moore, Tisei’s campaign manager.

Lynn’s attorney said the accusations are absurd.

“Sour grapes. If they don’t like the results they want to blame somebody else but there’s been nothing substantiated,” said Michael Barry, Lynn city solicitor.

Tierney, an eight-term Democrat from Salem, survived despite his struggles to contain the fallout from a federal criminal case involving his wife and her two brothers. The brothers have been implicated in an illegal offshore gambling ring.

“Enough with the ugly lies and the innuendo and stuff and get down to business,” said Rep. John Tierney. “Today we had the opportunity to move forward and get down to business and there are a lot of people out there who really had things that need to be considered. Getting back to work, making sure their kids get educated, making sure that seniors have a good, comfortable retirement.”

It was Tierney’s closest race since he was elected 16 years ago.