Last Tuesday, a startling, little-known fact was unearthed: Republicans exist in Massachusetts. Being a resident of the Commonwealth myself, this was something of which even I was not entirely aware. In a stunning turn of events that has the most seasoned political analysts still scratching their heads, Republican Scott Brown trounced Democrat Martha Coakley to win a seat in the United States Senate that had not been occupied by a conservative for 38 years. Yes, the state that I call home is that liberal. Brown's seat of course was formerly held by Massachusetts royalty; the late Ted Kennedy. Kennedy, being one of the most liberal representatives in the Senate, makes Brown's victory all the more striking. The magnitude of Brown's election and the consequences it will create are almost difficult to fathom.
While the GOP is riding high off of Brown's win, his meteoric rise in the election may be more reflective of public sentiment towards the Obama administration than Brown himself. His opponent, Martha Coakley, should have sailed effortlessly to an easy victory. Massachusetts has an extremely strong liberal voting contingent, and she has had no major mars on her political record. However, many complained of her complacency, and lack of initiative in campaigning. In fact, Coakley only seemed to truly begin campaigning about two weeks before the election itself when it was revealed that her numbers were beginning to sag. Information of Brown gaining ground sent a shockwave throughout the Democratic Party, and almost immediately the political heavyweights were enlisted. President Obama himself came to Massachusetts to publicly support Coakley, but even that could not save her numbers from continuing to fall.
Ironically, the spike in Brown's numbers can be attributed to the same sentiments upon which Obama was elected in 2008. Just as Barack rode a wave of anger against former President Bush, Brown was able to employ public animosity in his favor as well. Since the Commander-in-Chief was sworn in almost exactly one year ago, people have become increasingly unhappy with his seeming unwillingness to follow through on many of his campaign promises, and the numerous government bailouts did not seem to shift public opinion. Additionally, universal healthcare is an extremely controversial issue, and there has yet to be a proposal to garner widespread support.
Voters in Massachusetts were well aware of all of this. After former "Saturday Night Live" writer Al Franken officially, if narrowly, won a seat in the Senate in Minnesota, the democrats had enough members to potentially block any filibusters, and in essence had complete control over the fate of legislation in Congress. The passing of Senator Kennedy called for a special election in Massachusetts, where naturally it was assumed another democrat would take his place. However, the unpopularity of the healthcare reform bills in both houses was vastly underestimated, and ultimately became a contributing factor to Brown's victory.
The congressional clash of the titans that is the healthcare debate has been raging on for months now, with little progress.
The House of Representatives and the Senate have each formulated their own bills with discrepancies between the two that need to be rectified if Congress hopes to see any change. However, when Brown is sworn in, it will throw a major hitch in the plans of a democrat-dominated congress. With the Senate now clocking in at 59 democrats and 41 republicans, the possibility of filibustering as a means of blocking legislation is once again on the table.
The democratic defeat in this Senate race hurts Obama symbolically more than anything. It sends the message that if representatives from his party cannot get elected in a state that is considered by many to be the bastion of liberalism, who can? Then again, Scott Brown is hardly the hard-lining conservative many of his political adversaries would have you believe. He represents a unique breed of republicans somewhat specific to New England who are fiscally conservative yet socially more moderate, and sometimes fairly liberal. Brown himself has already stated he does not plan to vote with his party on every issue.
That being said, Brown's voting over the course of the next few months will prove vital to the fate of his political career. Because this was a special election, he only has two years before the next election, where the democrats are hoping that once again, political "normalcy" in Massachusetts will be restored.
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