9/11 Pilot's Brother Excluded From Anniversary Ceremony
Sun Sep 9, 1:34 PM ET
The decision to exclude the brother of a pilot killed in the Sept. 11 attacks from ceremonies marking its anniversary has set off a political firestorm in Massachusetts.
Jim Ogonowski, who is a Republican candidate for Congress in the heavily-Democratic state, was not asked to speak, as he had for the past four years.
Ogonowski?s brother John was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, one of two planes that was flown into the World Trade Center.
While Jim Ogonowski was not invited, speaking will be ex-Congressman Martin Meehan, whose wife is chairing Democrat Niki Tsongas' campaign against Ogonowski.
"I never really thought about this as a political situation," Ted Livingston, executive director of the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund, told The Boston Globe. "We didn't seek to include or exclude anyone because of party lines."
However, in the past, Ogonowski was asked by then Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, to be part of the ceremony. Current Gov. Deval Patrick's chief of staff was a formerly a political consultant for Tsongas.
Ogonowski still plans to attend the ceremony.
"He has been honored to speak in the past, and would have been honored to have been asked this year," campaign manager Dustin Olson told the newspaper.
Ogonowski and Tsongas are in the midst of a hotly contested race for Massachusetts? Fifth Congressional District, a race that Republicans see as their best chance in years to win.