Aw damn....well, I guess this may be a wakeup call for some of the Dems who were still fighting the Prez in stuff like health care. Damn...
************************************* http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/19/massachusetts.senate/index.html?hpt=T1 Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Republican Scott Brown has won Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy, CNN projects based on actual results. Brown, a Massachusetts state senator, had 52 percent of the vote to 47 percent for state Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic contender, with over 69 percent of precincts reporting in results from the National Election Pool, a consortium of media organizations including CNN. Independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, a libertarian who is not related to the Kennedy political family of Massachusetts, had 1 percent. At stake was President Obama's domestic agenda, including health care reform. If Brown upsets Coakley, Republicans will strip Democrats of the 60-seat Senate supermajority needed to overcome GOP filibusters against future Senate action on a broad range of White House priorities. Final numbers on election turnout are expected "to be pretty good" despite the wintry weather, said Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the office of Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin. "I don't think weather is going to impede too many people" from coming out to vote, McNiff said Tuesday. "I think the interest in this election will trump any bad weather." Galvin predicted Monday as many 2.2 million of the state's 4.5 million registered voters would vote -- at least double the turnout from December's primary. In one sign of high interest, more than 100,000 absentee ballots were requested ahead of the election, according to McNiff. iReport: Send us your thoughts on the special election Coakley was initially expected to easily win the race to replace Sen. Ted Kennedy, known as the "liberal lion" of the Senate who made health care reform the centerpiece of his nearly 47-year Senate career. Kennedy died of brain cancer in August. Until recently, Brown was underfunded and unknown statewide. In addition, no Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts since 1972, and Democrats control the governorship, both houses of the state legislature, and the state's entire congressional delegation. The latest poll, however, showed Brown leading Coakley by 7 points, 52 to 45 percent. The American Research Group survey, taken Friday through Sunday, had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. No polls released in the past few days showed Coakley ahead. In a sign of the high stakes involved, the Coakley campaign held an afternoon news conference Tuesday to complain that voters in three places received ballots already marked for Brown. McNiff confirmed that the secretary of state's offices received two reports of voters saying they got pre-marked ballots. The suspect ballots were invalidated and the voters received new ballots, McNiff said. Kevin Conroy, the Coakley campaign manager, said the "disturbing incidents" raised questions about the integrity of the election. In response, the Brown campaign issued a statement criticizing Coakley's team. "Reports that the Coakley campaign is making reckless accusations regarding the integrity of today's election is a reminder that they are a desperate campaign," Daniel B. Winslow, the counsel for the Brown campaign, said in the statement. Obama has been both "surprised and frustrated" by the race, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. Obama and former President Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail over the past three days in an attempt to save Coakley's campaign, which observers say has been hampered by complacency and missteps. Obama crushed Sen. John McCain in Massachusetts in 2008, beating the GOP presidential nominee by 26 points. "If you were fired up in the last election, I need you more fired up in this election," Obama urged a crowd at a Coakley campaign rally on Sunday. Vicki Kennedy, the senator's widow, called on state Democrats to turn out to save her husband's legacy. "We need your help. We need your support. We need you to get out there and vote on Tuesday," Kennedy said. "We need you to bring your neighbors. We need you to bring your friends." Brown, who has trumpeted his 30 years of service in the National Guard, hewed to traditional GOP themes at the end of the campaign. He promised at a rally Sunday that, if elected, he would back tax cuts and be tougher on terrorists than Coakley. He also repeated a pledge to oppose Obama's health care reform effort. "Massachusetts wants real reform and not this trillion-dollar Obama health care that is being forced on the American people," he said. "As the 41st [Republican] senator I will make sure that we do it better." Forty-four percent of Massachusetts voters cited the economy and jobs as their top concern in a recent 7 News/Suffolk University poll. Thirty-eight percent mentioned health care as their top concern. Voters more concerned with the economy were split almost evenly between the two candidates; voters more worried about health care narrowly supported Coakley. Brown's surprising strength came in part because some independents and conservatives who have supported Democrats in the past were having second thoughts. Democrats far outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts, but there are more independents than Democrats and Republicans combined. Several Democratic sources said multiple Obama advisers have told the party they believe Coakley is going to lose. The sources said they still hoped Obama's weekend visit to the state, coupled with a late push by party activists, could tip the balance in her favor, but Obama aides have grown increasingly pessimistic since Friday. Facing the possibility of Coakley's defeat, Democrats were trying to figure out if they could pass health care reform without that crucial 60th Senate vote. But top White House aides publicly insisted they are not engaging in any talk of contingency plans, because they believe Coakley will come out on top Tuesday. The seat is currently held by former Kennedy aide and longtime friend Paul Kirk, who was appointed to the seat on an interim basis. Galvin, the Democratic secretary of state, said last week that certifying Tuesday's election results could take more than two weeks -- potentially enough time to allow congressional Democrats to pass a final health care bill before Brown is seated, if he should win. But multiple Democratic sources said this is unlikely. Even if House and Senate Democrats could reach a deal to meld their bills and pass them in the next couple of weeks, there would be a huge outcry from not only Republicans, but also an increasingly distrustful public if they appeared to be rushing it through. Two Democratic sources in close contact with the White House told CNN on Monday they've urged the administration, in the event of a Brown victory, to push House Democrats to pass the Senate's health care bill as currently written. Doing so would prevent the plan from having to be taken up by the Senate again. "I think the Senate bill clearly is better than nothing," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said Tuesday. A third option would be for Democrats to revisit the idea of trying to push health care through the Senate with only 51 votes -- a simple majority. But to do that Democrats would have to use a process known as reconciliation, which presents technical and procedural issues that would delay the process for a long time. A number of Democrats are eager to put the health care debate behind them and move on to economic issues such as job creation as soon as possible this election year. Senate Democrats could also try again to get moderate GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to vote for a compromise health reform plan. Multiple Democratic sources, however, have said they believe that is unlikely now.
