Republican Scott Brown on Tuesday scored a stunning upset over Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
Brown broke the Democrats' stranglehold on the Massachusetts congressional delegation — all 10 congressional seats and until yesterday, both Senate seats. He ended the Democrats' filibuster-proof, 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and placed in question the future of President Obama's agenda.
He also muddied the local political waters.
Local Democrats seemed certain that Coakley would win the seat, meaning there would be no incumbent to run against in November to become attorney general.
Haverhill's state senator, Steven Baddour, was considered a strong candidate. In the game of dominoes that politics mimics, Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini and Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi seemed to be preparing for a primary battle to determine who would be the front-runner for Baddour's Beacon Hill office.
All that is now in flux.
For years, citizens of Massachusetts have had their votes taken for granted. Many times, Republicans could not even muster a candidate to stand against the Democratic incumbent. At best, voters would have a choice between two flavors of Democrat in a primary contest.
Brown was able to establish himself early on as a clear alternative to Coakley and to frame the race as a referendum on the Democrats' leadership in Washington.
Locally, will voters who checked off the names of Democrats now be more willing to look at Republican or Indpendent candidates? Coakley, Manzi, Baddour and Fiorentini must all be wondering the same thing this morning and wondering whether they should rethink their plans for the fall.
Will Coakley run for AG again? If not, would Baddour risk a bruising statewide campaign against an emboldened Republican opponent? Even if Baddour seeks another Senate term, he could still face a republican — or Independent — challenge.
How did Brown, a previously little-noted state senator from Wrentham, turn Massachusetts politics on its ear by becoming the first Republican to hold this seat since Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1953?
Brown won with an energetic campaign that appealed to voters' concerns about the economy, federal spending, health care reform and the war on terrorism.
This contest energized voters like few contests in recent memory.
So what does it take to fire up voters? Two candidates, with clear and differing stands on the issues.
In other words, give voters a choice that matters and they'll show up in droves.
There's worry, too, among voters about the health care reform package moving through Congress. The bills under consideration in the House and Senate are enormously complex. Yet there has been so little time to analyze them people can't figure out whether they'll help or hurt their own finance. Democratic leaders have had to pay off their own party members and cut deals with labor unions just to have a chance to pass this monstrosity. Brown cast himself as the nation's last chance to take a longer look at health care reform. The message to Republicans in Massachusetts could not be more clear: Here is a chance to make Massachusetts again a two-party state. Treat people with respect, focus on issues and offer a real alternative to Democratic policies. Do that and people will beat a path to the ballot box — even on a snowy day in January.
