Story Published: Jan 19, 2010 at 5:27 PM PST
Massachusetts State Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, holds up a copy of the Boston Herald as celebrates in Boston, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, after winning a special election held to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S.
Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a
century, leaving President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in
doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.
Addressing an exuberant victory celebration Tuesday night, Brown
declared he was "ready to go to Washington without delay" as the
crowd chanted, "Seat him now." Democrats indicated they would,
deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to
block Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the
health care plan he has promised to oppose.
"The people of Massachusetts have spoken. We welcome Scott
Brown to the Senate and will move to seat him as soon as the proper
paperwork has been received," said Majority Leader Harry Reid,
D-Nev. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said he
would notify the Senate on Wednesday that Brown had been elected.
The loss by the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the
Democratic stronghold was a stunning embarrassment for the White
House after Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to save the
foundering candidate. Her defeat on Tuesday signaled big political
problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and
gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.
Brown's victory was the third major loss for Democrats in
statewide elections since Obama became president. Republicans won
governors' seats in Virginia and New Jersey in November.
"I have no interest in sugarcoating what happened in
Massachusetts," said Sen. Robert Menendez, the head of the Senate
Democrats' campaign committee. "There is a lot of anxiety in the
country right now. Americans are understandably impatient."
Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate,
which could allow the GOP to block the president's health care
legislation. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to
thwart Republican filibusters. The trouble may go deeper:
Democratic lawmakers could read the results as a vote against
Obama's broader agenda, weakening their support for the president.
And the results could scare some Democrats from seeking office this
fall.
The Republican will finish Kennedy's unexpired term, facing
re-election in 2012.
Brown led by 52 per cent to 47 percent with all but 3 percent of
precincts counted. Turnout was exceptional for a special election
in January, with light snow reported in parts of the state. More
voters showed up at the polls Tuesday than in any non-presidential
general election in Massachusetts since 1990.
One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama's swearing-in, the
election played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment
from voters over persistently high unemployment, Wall Street
bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling
over health care.
"I voted for Obama because I wanted change. ... I thought he'd
bring it to us, but I just don't like the direction that he's
heading," said John Triolo, 38, a registered independent who voted
in Fitchburg.
He said his frustrations, including what he considered the
too-quick pace of health care legislation, led him to vote for
Brown.
For weeks considered a long shot, Brown seized on voter
discontent to overtake Coakley in the campaign's final stretch. His
candidacy energized Republicans, including backers of the "tea
party" protest movement, while attracting disappointed Democrats
and independents uneasy with where they felt the nation was
heading.
A cornerstone of Brown's campaign was his promise to vote
against the health care plan.
Though the president wasn't on the ballot, he was on many
voters' minds.
Coakley called Brown conceding the race, and Obama talked to
both Brown and Coakley, congratulating them on the race.
The Democrat said the president told her: "We can't win them
all."
Brown will be the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in
30 years.
Even before the first results were announced, administration
officials were privately accusing Coakley of a poorly run campaign
and playing down the notion that Obama or a toxic political
landscape had much to do with the outcome.
Coakley's supporters, in turn, blamed that very environment,
saying her lead dropped significantly after the Senate passed
health care reform shortly before Christmas and after the Christmas
Day attempted airliner bombing that Obama himself said showed a
failure of his administration.
Days before the polls closed, Democrats were fingerpointing and
laying blame.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the House Democrats'
campaign effort, said Coakley's loss won't deter his colleagues
from continuing to blame the previous administration.
"President George W. Bush and House Republicans drove our
economy into a ditch and tried to run away from the accident," he
said. "President Obama and congressional Democrats have been
focused repairing the damage to our economy."
At Boston's Park Plaza Hotel, giddy Republicans cheered, chanted
"USA" and waved the "tea party" version of the American flag.
Even before Brown won, the grass-roots network fueled by
antiestablishment frustrations, sought credit for the victory, much
like the liberal MoveOn.org did in the 2006 midterm elections when
Democrats rose to power.
GOP chairman Michael Steele said Brown's "message of lower
taxes, smaller government and fiscal responsibility clearly
resonated with independent-minded voters in Massachusetts who were
looking for a solution to decades of failed Democrat leadership."
Wall Street watched the election closely. The Dow Jones
industrial average rose 116 points, and analysts attributed the
increase to hopes the election would make it harder for Obama to
make his changes to health care. That eased investor concerns that
profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer.
Across Massachusetts, voters who had been bombarded with phone
calls and dizzied with nonstop campaign commercials for Coakley and
Brown gave a fitting turnout despite intermittent snow and rain
statewide.
Galvin, who discounted sporadic reports of voter irregularities
throughout the day, predicted turnout ranging from 1.6 million to
2.2 million, 40 percent to 55 percent of registered voters. The
Dec. 8 primary had a scant turnout of about 20 percent.
Voters considered national issues including health care and the
federal budget deficits.
Fears about spending drove Karla Bunch, 49, to vote for Brown.
"It's time for the country, for the taxpayers, to take back their
money," she said. And Elizabeth Reddin, 65, voted for Brown
because she said she was turned off by the Democrat's negative
advertisements, saying: "The Coakley stuff was disgusting."
---
Liz Sidoti reported from Washington. Associated Press writers
Beth Fouhy, Bob Salsberg, Steve LeBlanc, Karen Testa, Kevin Vineys
and Stephanie Reitz also contributed to this report.
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