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CONCORD — Niki Tsongas is no stranger to campaigns, politics, or the 5th District.

Though she has not held political office herself, Tsongas worked closely with her late husband Paul on his successful campaigns for the 5th Congressional District seat in 1974, and for U.S. Senate four years later. She also worked on her husband’s 1991 presidential campaign before he lost the Democratic nomination to Bill Clinton.

“I’ve had a longstanding familiarity with politics in the district, the state and the country,” said Tsongas, one of five Democrats running for the congressional seat vacated by Martin Meehan, a Lowell Democrat who left office after 14 years to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. The 5th District includes Lancaster.

Now, as Tsongas runs her own campaign for the congressional seat her husband once held, she hopes to use Massachusetts as a model to solve some of the country’s most pressing problems, such as expanding affordable healthcare and stimulating economic development.

“Finally there is hope with what Massachusetts has done,” Tsongas, 61, said of healthcare during a recent meeting with Community Newspaper Company editors and reporters. “In Washington I think we have a chance to move this forward.”

Tsongas, who sits on the board of directors of Fallon Community Health Plan, said Massachusetts’ recently enacted system provides one possible real-world solution to the problem of covering the roughly 47 million Americans who do not have health insurance.

Tsongas has also proposed enhancing coverage for uninsured children under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The program is the source of a heated debate between the Democratic-controlled Congress, which has proposed greatly expanding the program, and President George W. Bush, who favors a much more modest increase and has vowed to veto the legislation.

Tsongas also disagreed with Bush’s tax cuts for wealthy Americans and his handling of the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, issues which she said have diverted federal money away from important domestic projects.

“Between a war and a tax cut, it’s had a tremendous impact on federal budgets,” she said.

Tsongas added that the administration has long ignored growing concerns about global warming.

“It’s been one of the tragedies of the Bush administration that they’ve ignored the science on this,” she said. “We need to change direction.”

Tsongas, who has two daughters who have worked with environmental organizations, said if elected, she would push efforts to expand the research and development of alternative fuels, increase fuel efficiency standards and cap environmentally harmful emissions.

Tsongas said she drives a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee because she prefers to buy American cars and the domestic manufacturers have not kept up with competition from abroad in creating fuel-efficient cars. Like healthcare, she said the solution would be for the government to partner with private sector industry to spawn new research and development and create cheaper, more fuel-efficient American hybrid cars to compete with Japanese and European imports.

Such partnerships could also encourage economic development and job creation in the district, Tsongas said. She pointed to a company in Billerica that developed plastic goggles for the military, creating new jobs and investment in the area.

Like several of her opponents in the race, Tsongas also emphasized the need for a change in the increasingly partisan Washington. She pointed to former House Speaker Eugene “Tip” O’Neill and President Ronald Reagan’s work across party lines to reach important accomplishments like raising the retirement age to ease the strain placed on Social Security by aging baby boomers.

“It’s definitely time to change the tone of politics in Washington,” she said. “Too often we see each side carve out a position and use it to demonize the other side, and not get anything done.”

Tsongas also addressed the concern that as a resident of Lowell, the district’s major urban center, she would be out of touch with smaller towns on the fringes of the district, such as Lancaster. While towns throughout the district have different priorities, she said, there are issues that resonate with voters across the district, such as ending the war in Iraq, dealing with global warming and job creation.

“There are disparate interests, but we do have common concerns,” she said. “These are global issues.”

Tsongas also said she would draw on her record of public service on several boards and commissions that have worked on revitalizing Lowell, and as dean of external affairs at Middlesex Community College.

The other Democratic candidates in the race are: Lowell City Councilor and former mayor Eileen Donoghue, and state Reps. James Eldridge, D-Acton; Barry Finegold, D-Andover; and James Miceli, D-Wilmington.

The primary is Sept. 4 and the general election will be on Oct. 16.

(Christian Schiavone can be reached at 978-371-5743 or cschiavo@cnc.com.)