It’s crunch time. The voters of the 5th Congressional District will go to the polls this upcoming Tuesday, October 16th. This is a race that all of America is watching. Republicans, running scared after blindly supporting seven years of disastrous Bush Administration policies, are trying to sneak in under the radar and steal this election.

Don’t let them get away with it.

Niki Tsongas’ Republican challenger is taking his marching orders from a Ken Mehlman acolyte — and I know firsthand the Mehlman-Rove playbook from the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. There’s nothing they won’t do or say to distract, deceive, and distort. Rather than tell the truth — inconvenient or otherwise — they’re focusing their energies on scare tactics and “anonymous” mailings, hoping that the voters of the 5th District won’t realize that the Republican attack machine is at it again.

Enough is enough. It’s time to show the Republicans that we are sick and tired of campaigns fueled by fear, deception and lies.

That’s why I’ll be volunteering for the Tsongas campaign on Sunday and Monday, doing whatever I can to help Niki win. Come out and join me and donate your time to support Niki during these crucial final days of campaigning.

The Tsongas campaign needs volunteers to phonebank, go door to door, hold signs and get voters to the polls this upcoming Tuesday, the 16th. If you’re able to come on out and help, please call her Campaign Headquarters at 1-978-458-6454 or email field@nikitsongas.com. You can learn more about Niki and her campaign at her website, nikitsongas.com.

Thanks, and I hope to see you out there!

John Kerry

It takes more than just sending out emails to help a candidate get elected, though — even a well-qualified, deserving candidate like Niki Tsongas. It takes more than just setting up ActBlue donation pages to give a campaign the extra muscle it needs to win a race. It takes more than offering endorsements and serving up supportive soundbites to the local media to add luster to an individual who’s running for office.

Senator Kerry has done all of those things on Niki Tsongas’ behalf, of course — as have other state and national luminaries like Senator Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and a host of mainstream media outlets (not to mention prominent area bloggers like those writing forBlueMassGroup, BelowBoston, and Left in Lowell as well).

But JK is doing more than just those things himself — he’s putting his own boots on the ground for Niki Tsongas here in Massachusetts, too. When he wrote in that email that he was going to be volunteering for Niki himself on Sunday and Monday, he meant what he said. He’ll be spending both days working on her behalf in meetings with supporters, making phone calls, and appearing at public events such as Sunday’s Unity Breakfast event in Andover and in 5th District events in Lowell on Monday.

Niki Tsongas is the right person for the job of Representative to Congress from the 5th District of Massachusetts, in no small part because she knows how to walk the walk in addition to talking the talk.

Senator Kerry knows what it’s like to run that race, and he knows why the 5th District needs to send Niki Tsongas to Washington — and that’s why he’s not only talking the talk, but he’s walking the walk for her this weekend, too.