Toomey Easily Overcomes First Challenge in Years

Incumbent Timothy J. Toomey survived his first challenge in eight years yesterday, defeating Green Party candidate Paul E. Lachelier to win a sixth consecutive term as state representative for the 26th Middlesex District last night.

Toomey said he spent election day campaigning and greeting voters as they arrived at a local school to vote.

Meanwhile, after a sleepless night, Lachelier also spent the day at the polls.

Traveling from one polling station to the next, he elected to use a bike rather than a polluting automobile, according to his campaign manager, Gina Dario.

“I bicycle because it adds to my freedom,” Lachelier said. “I find that cars are just as much a source of unfreedom as a source of freedom.”

Lachelier has championed alternative, environment-friendly modes of transportation throughout his campaign.

He supports full tax credits for the purchase of bicycles and a “Green tax” to be levied on automobiles with particularly poor fuel economy.

While Lachelier lost the election, he won 37.4 percent of the vote, according to the Cambridge and Somerville election commissions.

“Not shabby at all,” Dario said.

Lachelier said he was “not entirely surprised” by the results,given the difficulty in unseating an incumbent.

But he said his persistence would ultimately bring him victory.

Last year, Lachelier spent two days occupying Mass. Hall as part of a Progressive Student Labor Movement sit-in asking for a living wage for Harvard employees.

He said yesterday that his political career is far from over.

“I haven’t foreclosed the idea of running again in the future,” he said.