Today, in Massachusetts, was the special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy. Democrat Martha Coakley had held as much as a twenty point lead up until the last few weeks, but her challenger Scott Brown has run a good and aggressive campaign.
State Senator Scott Brown has become a favorite of the tea-party movement, and has promised to kill the health care bill if elected. For her part, State Attorney General Martha Coakley has not made any friends, at least not tonight, in the Democratic party. She, reportedly, took several weeks off from the campaign after winning the primary. Certainly, both the national and state Democratic party took this race for granted.
Much will be made in the aftermath of this election about how this is a sea change in American politics. That can be true only if sea changes happen every 18 months or so. It is certainly interesting that, in an election year, a Republican can win in a blue state such as Massachusetts. However, all politics is local, and in a year when the biggest issue on the national stage is health care, one can hardly draw parallels between Massachusetts, where less than 10% of the population goes without coverage, and the rest of the country. What has probably contributed to the result tonight is the personalities of the two candidates, and the hubris of the Democratic party. With the country in such turmoil, and an anti-incumbent mood sweeping politicians of all stripes out of office, it was a mistake for anyone to assume that the race was over before it started.
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