(NECN) – The latest polls in the Mass. 6th Congressional District race reinforce why it is being closely watched on a national level.

Internal polling by Republican challenger Richard Tisei’s campaign shows Tisei has a seven point lead over Democratic incumbent John Tierney, with 40 percent to Tierney’s 33 percent, with 27 percent undecided.

Those results are eye-catching, since a Republican hasn’t won a Congressional seat in Massachusetts since 1994.

“I think there are a lot of people out there right now who are totally receptive to some type of change and they look at what’s happening in Washington, they realize things aren’t getting done and this is a great opportunity,” said Tisei.

EXCERPTS:

But he doesn’t want his candidacy to be just novelty — outside of social issues, he’s got a serious Republican record, never once voting for a broad-based tax increase in the 26 years he served in the state Legislature. He helped pass the state’s sweeping welfare reform act in 1993, and although he supported the Massachusetts health care law, he’s pledged to repeal “Obamacare.”

“I’m not going to go to Washington and be the gay congressman. I want to be the congressman that happens to be gay,” he said. “I’m a live and let live Republican. And my political philosophy is that the government should get off your back, out of your wallet and away from your bedroom. I’m going to work with the leadership to put the country back on track.”

***

“The momentum behind his campaign is proof positive that Massachusetts families are fed up with Washington’s policies that continue to spend too much, tax too much and borrow too much at the expense of hard-working families,” said NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions in a statement announcing Tisei’s Young Guns status. “Richard Tisei is leading the pack as Republicans continue to send a loud and clear message that we will hold Democrats accountable for their unpopular partisan agenda.”

Being a gay Republican isn’t the only compelling thing about Tisei’s story. He grew up in a middle-class family in Lynnfield, Mass., where he still owns a real estate brokerage with his partner of 18 years. He fell in love with politics in high school and ended up at American University, graduating with a degree in political science in three years and becoming the first member of his family to finish college. He interned for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush during the Reagan administration.

It was at American that he ran his first campaign, for a spot as a Massachusetts state representative, out of his dorm room senior year. He won that race and at the age of 22, he became the youngest Republican ever elected in the state.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76291.html#ixzz1v8oAbfcQ

“The federal government is standing in the way of helping people,” Tisei said,

In general terms, Tisei described the fishing industry as burdened by an irresponsible central state bureaucracy. “We need a top to bottom change at NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).”

Tisei said he has been “spending a lot of time brainstorming with Scott Brown,” and proved it by echoing Brown’s best punch line, when he said, “I cannot believe everyone has not been fired (at NOAA).”

But Tisei said Gloucester represents a broader model of a failed federal system, noting that the city’s problems extend beyond mismanagement by NOAA to include an unfunded $60 million mandate of the Environmental Protection Agency for a modernized and expanded sewer treatment plant.

READ MORE:
Tisei: Feds ‘standing in the way of helping people’
By Richard Gaines, Staff Writer
Gloucester Times
May 16, 2012

(Lynnfield, MA) – Congressional candidate Richard Tisei and a group of supporters today turned in enough certified signatures to qualify him to be on the November ballot, as confirmed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Election Division.

Republican challenger Richard Tisei has a 7-point lead over Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), according to an internal poll for Tisei’s campaign.

Tisei leads Tierney 40-33 in a survey by GOP pollster John McLaughlin and obtained by The Hill. One in four voters were undecided.

Republicans have been talking for months about the possibility of wresting a House seat away from Democrats in deep-blue Massachusetts, but Democrats have balked, claiming the GOP won’t sink resources into Massachusetts when they could spend their money in more competitive districts elsewhere.

The poll also showed Tierney with a 36 percent approval rating, while Tisei’s stands at 22 percent. But two in three voters haven’t heard of Tisei or have no opinion of him. One in four voters said the same about Tierney, who has been in office for eight terms.

Tisei up 7 on Rep. Tierney in GOP poll
By Josh Lederman, The Hill
05/15/12 11:46 AM ET

Tisei — joined by a small group of supporters — planned to deliver the signatures to the Massachusetts state secretary’s office on Tuesday.

The former GOP state senator and one-time candidate for lieutenant governor is hoping to oust incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. John Tierney in the state’s 6th Congressional District.

The race is seen as possibly the best chance Republicans have in Massachusetts to recapture one of the state’s U.S. House seats.

FULL ARTICLE:
GOP US House hopeful Richard Tisei delivering signatures
By Associated Press
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Congressional candidate Richard Tisei (R) led Rep. John Tierney (D) by 7 points in a recent 6th district poll.

In a confidential polling memo sent from GOP pollster John McLaughlin to Tisei’s campaign manager — and obtained by Roll Call — Tisei took 40 percent to Tierney’s 33 percent, with 27 percent undecided. The horse race numbers include voters who definitely, probably and lean toward voting for each candidate.

Six months before the election, it’s a potentially major development in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the House since 1994. It’s also likely to be a fundraising boon to Tisei, who has outraised Tierney in each of the past two quarters.

Also in the Republican survey: 36 percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of Tierney, while 37 percent had an unfavorable view of the eight-term Congressman. Twenty-two percent had a favorable opinion of Tisei, a former state Senator, while 10 percent had an unfavorable opinion of him. Five percent had never heard of Tierney, while a third of those surveyed had never heard of Tisei.

Massachusetts: Richard Tisei Leads John Tierney in Republican Poll
By Joshua Miller
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tierney’s super PAC ‘pledge’ says plenty

U.S. Rep. John Tierney must be feeling the heat. Or at least he’s come to realize his 6th Congressional District race against Republican Richard Tisei has become a battle of equals.

Tierney’s recent attempt to have Tisei join him in signing a “People’s Pledge” to discourage outside interest groups from influencing their heated, competitive campaign shows how close Tierney believes this race has become.

Tierney wanted both campaigns to sign a pledge to prevent outside groups from airing independent television, radio or Internet ads supporting or attacking either candidate. If they did, the candidate who benefited from the ad would have had to pay 50 percent of the ad’s cost to a charity chosen by their opponent.

Tierney’s bid to limit contributions only applied to super PACs, which must function independently of a specific campaign. Unlike traditional political action committees, super PACs can raise unlimited amounts money from corporations, unions and individuals, while PACs’ contributions to candidates are limited to $5,000 from individuals — half in the primary, and half in the general election — and must be publicly disclosed.

We’re sure it’s simply a coincidence that Tierney has raised 43 percent of his money in this election cycle from PACs, compared to just 5 percent for Tisei.

And despite that discrepancy, Tisei, a former state senator from Wakefield, has raised $354,467 in the first quarter of 2012 compared to Tierney’s $325,125.

Obviously, the incumbent Salem Democrat understands how important — and rare — the national Republican Party views this opportunity to snatch a U.S. rep seat from away from the all-Democrat Bay State delegation.

Thus Tierney’s desire to keep the flow of Republican super PAC cash out of this race.

Of course, when he was offered a chance by Tisei to stem the tide of PAC money, Tierney demurred, for obvious reasons.

Tisei had asked Tierney to agree to one of four options: End all PAC contributions; end all PAC contributions from outside Massachusetts; limit PAC contributions to 20 percent of all contributions; or limit all donations to those coming from Massachusetts.

Having declined, both attempts to limit PAC money from either entity seems unlikely.

Which gets us back to the battle at hand.

The redrawing of Tierney’s district, which now includes Billerica and Tewksbury, as well as parts of Andover, gives the Tisei camp a realistic chance to snare a GOP victory.

Attempting to have Tisei sign a Brown-Warren type of super PAC oath only indicates that Tierney believes he’s involved in a similarly neck-and-neck race.

This editorial originally appeared on the Lowell Sun website and can be read HERE.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has tapped its first group of blue chip recruits to take part in Young Guns, a program to provide support for the party’s top House candidates and put Democrats on the defensive, POLITICO has learned.

The NRCC is boosting a dozen hopefuls mostly running for Democratic-held seats. If the effort succeeds, it would mean Democrats would have to win that many more seats to erase the GOP’s 25-seat edge and take back the House.

Half of the Young Guns inductees are waging competitive bids against Democratic incumbents. They are: Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania, Matt Doheny and Randy Altschuler of New York, Richard Tisei of Massachusetts, Andy Barr of Kentucky, and Ricky Gill of California.

***

“These candidates have met a series of rigorous goals that will put them in position to win on Election Day,” Sessions said in a statement provided to POLITICO. “The momentum behind these campaigns is proof-positive that Americans are fed up with President Obama who continues to spend too much, tax too much and borrow too much at the expense of hard-working families.”

NRCC looks to put Dems on defense
By ALEX ISENSTADT | 5/9/12 6:47 PM EDT

(Lynnfield, MA) – Congressional candidate Richard Tisei today issued a statement regarding President Obama’s change of heart with regard to gay marriage.

“I support the evolution, as he has called it, of President Obama’s position on gay marriage. I’ve been a strong advocate for equal rights for all people in the area of marriage equality and elsewhere for years. As a country, we need to respect one another even when we sometimes don’t understand each other – especially when we don’t understand each other. In Massachusetts, I joined with other elected officials in both parties in support of these rights – not special rights, but equality.

President Obama is to be commended for changing his personal view on this matter, even as he reiterated his support for the right of states to do as they please regarding gay marriage. I would urge President Obama to work with people in both parties to lessen the fear surrounding this issue and to avoid its use for political gain. No one in either party should use this issue for political advantage. Voices need to be lowered and more tolerance needs to come into play throughout our land. When the Pilgrims came over so long ago, they didn’t agree on everything. So they focused on how they could successfully govern themselves and drew up the Mayflower Compact. They looked at what they had in common and how they could get along. We need to continually re-affirm our support for each other as Americans, even as times continue to change.”