Scott Brown Is Sworn In, Takes Over Kennedy's Senate Office

Scott Brown Sworn In As New Senator From Massachusetts


Republican Scott Brown was sworn in Thursday as the new U.S. senator from Massachusetts to fill the seat formerly held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

His Senate colleagues applauded after the ceremony on the floor of the Senate chamber conducted by Vice President Joe Biden, in his capacity as president of the Senate. Democratic Sen. John Kerry, also of Massachusetts, accompanied Brown into the chamber.

"It's time to do my job," Brown told reporters earlier in the day when he arrived on Capitol Hill.

Brown indicated his top priorities will be job growth and deficit reduction. He said that while he has "great respect" for Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, it's "a new era."

Brown's win in a January 19 special election stripped Democrats of their 60-seat Senate supermajority and raised fears among many congressional Democrats of a potential GOP landslide in November's midterm elections.

Thursday's ceremony occurred a week earlier than originally planned.

Massachusetts officials had said it would take a few weeks after the election to certify the result of Brown's victory. In a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Secretary of State William Galvin on Wednesday, Brown's attorney said the senator-elect had planned on being sworn in on February 11, but had been told that several Senate votes would be held before then.

"For this reason, he wants certification to occur immediately," attorney Daniel Winslow wrote.

The certification occurred Thursday, allowing Brown to officially fill his seat later in the day.

Brown will be taking over Kennedy's coveted office space in the Senate Russell building. Sen. Paul Kirk, who has held the seat since his appointment after Kennedy's death, currently occupies the office and will move out.

Several Senate sources tell CNN that the Senate Rules Committee, which assigns office space, decided to give Brown the office space as a matter of convenience.

Because of his seniority, Kennedy had one of the most coveted office suites in the Senate complex. It is located in the Russell building, down the hall from the Rotunda, and has balconies that overlook the Capitol.


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Jon Stewart Mocks Mass. U.S. Senate Race; Too Funny!

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Too Late For Dems Finger Pointing: Coakley, Obama Too Arrogant

Finger-Pointing Begins For Democratic Insiders


As voters head to the polls in Massachusetts, nervous Democrats have already begun to blame one another for putting at risk the Senate seat Ted Kennedy held for more than 40 years.

Many angry Democrats blame their candidate, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, for running a sluggish campaign that let Republican Scott Brown set the contours of the race.

Some Democratic strategists lay the fault at the feet of President Barack Obama, saying he should have done more to sell the party’s agenda.

And in private conversations, Hill sources say White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has blamed Coakley, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake for failing to see Brown’s surge in time to stop it.

“With the legislative and political stakes so high, it’s unbelievable that the Senate committee and White House let this race get so out of hand,” said one senior Washington Democrat. “There’s a lot of blame to go around. Martha Coakley is only one of the problems here.”

Coakley is at the center of the criticism. Democrats complain that her campaign was caught napping after last month’s primary — and that Brown was able to use the pause to shape the race.

“A malaise set in, and there was a failure to take advantage of the opportunity to define yourself the next day” after the primary, said longtime Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.). “You thank people for the primary and then begin to define the next six weeks.”

Added Neal: “Going dark was not a great idea.”

Although DSCC Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was still predicting victory Monday, even he conceded that it would have been “better” if Coakley had laid out the differences between the candidates earlier. He said Democrats have learned a crucial lesson: that even in very blue states, Democrats should expect a “volatile” environment with a “tough” electorate — and “you can’t afford not to be aggressive.”

“You have to define your opponent before they define themselves,” Menendez said. “In Brown’s case, he’s working hard to try to disguise himself.”

Menendez learned that the race was tightening about a week and a half ago, when independent pollsters returned results showing the race much tighter than Democratic polls had been portraying. He acted quickly — unleashing more than $2.5 million into the race, including $1.4 million in television ads in the past week alone, according to sources familiar with the effort.

The DSCC also dispatched senior staff to take tighter control of the Coakley campaign, bolster her get-out-the-vote efforts, improve her fundraising and enhance coordination between the White House and the campaign. As a result, the tone of her ads and her stump speech were sharpened in an attempt to define Brown in the minds of the voters as a far-right Republican out of touch with the state’s mainstream voters.

“Look, we’re never in place of a campaign; a candidate has to run their own race,” Menendez told POLITICO. “When the alarm bells went off, we sprung into action.”

Emanuel has told his confidants that those bells rang too late — and that both Menendez and Lake, who declined to be interviewed, should have been moving sooner.

But the White House itself is facing a barrage of criticism among Democrats, with many saying that Obama has let the GOP frame the issues — particularly health care — in the minds of many independent voters, including those who elected Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey in the fall.

“We lost independents in Virginia, we lost independents in New Jersey and we’re losing independents in Massachusetts,” said one Democratic campaign strategist. “The only thing those three states have in common is Obama.”

The Democratic National Committee, which spent at least $750,000 almost exclusively on get-out-the-vote efforts, has also faced criticism for not dispatching its resources early enough.

Democrats recognize the difficulty any candidate would have had, given the political headwinds blowing against the party at the moment. Still, they argue that the race was still very much winnable and that a veteran pol such as Rep. Michael Capuano — who was trounced by Coakley in the primary — would not have let Brown define the race.

Instead, they complain that Coakley effectively ceded to her opponent the day-to-day news coverage — what political pros call “earned media” — by not taking him seriously enough until it was too late.

Coakley was so confident, noted one fuming Democrat, that she even stopped the critical task of identifying supporters on the phone following the primary — the very foundation on which she should have structured her turnout operation.

Brown, a little-known Republican state senator, used the opening to cultivate a regular-guy image, most vividly rendered in what became the campaign’s defining ad — that of the candidate driving around Massachusetts in his well-worn GMC truck.

And while Brown, who is actually an attorney and is married to a local news broadcaster, was defining his just-folks persona, Coakley was committing a series of gaffes that made her seem politically out of touch or at least tone-deaf.

Asked about why she was not spending more time with voters, Coakley jabbed at Brown for having greeted hockey fans who attended a special outdoor game between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers.

“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?” she said.

Such one-on-one interaction with voters is the lifeblood of this state’s politics, and mocking the idea of braving the cold at Boston’s iconic baseball stadium seemed bizarre given the tens of thousands of voters who did just that to see the game.

“She had a humanity deficit as a cold campaigner, but they didn’t try to warm her up — or, instead, define the race about big issues — and instead ended up with a referendum on likability,” said one Massachusetts Democratic veteran.

J.B. Poersch, executive director of the DSCC, acknowledged that Democrats didn’t do enough to portray Coakley as an “independent voice” for Massachusetts. That allowed Brown to grab the “change” mantle — and to appeal to voters upset over the direction of the country.

“We just didn’t use the primary to set her up as a change agent enough,” Poersch said.

But Poersch strongly defended the committee’s efforts, saying “we, more than anybody, represented the difference in spending.”

“We were the principal funders of her field program,” Poersch said. “And my political director was side by side with her campaign manager” doing voter turnout.

Party officials say Monday’s debate and some subsequent Coakley gaffes may have done her in.

When moderator David Gergen asked Brown about the “Kennedy seat,” the Republican shot back that it was actually “the people’s seat.” The line became a populist rallying cry for both Brown and his supporters.

Coakley, meanwhile, hurt herself at the debate by suggesting that there were not currently any terrorists in Afghanistan.

More missteps followed, each of which amplified her weaknesses: leaving the state to attend a lobbyist-packed Washington fundraiser — which became a Brown ad; suggesting Catholics with strong views on contraception shouldn’t work in emergency rooms; appearing not to know that former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling was, in fact, a player for the Red Sox.

A candidate who was not a part of the Beacon Hill boys club, had no ties to Washington and had little in the way of a relationship with the Kennedys somehow managed to be cast as the ultimate insider.

“Massachusetts isn’t insulated from the anti-incumbent sentiment nationwide, but this was a race that a competent candidate would have won without panic or palpitations,” said a Massachusetts Democratic hand.



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America Watches Massachusetts U.S. Senate Race...Decision 2010

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Five Things To Watch In Massachusetts



The stakes for Tuesday’s special Senate election in Massachusetts couldn’t be higher. At play: the Democrats’ 60-seat supermajority — and, potentially, the fate of President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform legislation.

But as Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown head into the rare mid-January race, just who will show up at the polls remains something of a mystery.

“Conventional wisdom is, the high turnout favors the Democrat. But in a special election, high turnout is volatile because you don’t know who’s showing up,” said Scott Ferson, a Democratic strategist in the state.

Making the vote even tougher to predict: the weather. Tuesday’s forecast calls for a mix of snow and rain, with temperatures in the low 30s.

To make some sense of the early returns, POLITICO put together a guide of five things to watch as the results come in, after polls close at 8 p.m.

1.) Look at the South Shore

It’s no coincidence that Brown’s campaign imagery has highlighted his Everyman appeal. An early ad showed him riding his pickup truck across the state, he’s spent time campaigning in the cold outside Fenway Park, and his “People’s Tour” rally featured New England sports heroes such as Red Sox great Curt Schilling and former Boston College football star Doug Flutie.

There couldn’t be a greater contrast with Coakley, who often has exuded an entitled image on the campaign trail, no more clearly illustrated than when she expressed her preference, in an interview with the Boston Globe, for meeting with party leaders instead of glad-handing supporters. (A telling statistic: Brown has made 66 campaign stops since the primary, while Coakley has made only 19, as of Sunday.)

Her apparent confusion about Schilling — in a radio interview, she mistakenly said he was a Yankees fan — only fueled voters’ perception of her as out of touch.

Brown’s narrative has clearly hit a chord with working-class voters, who normally vote Democratic but sound receptive to the Republican’s message in a state where Democrats control all facets of government and the economy is sputtering.

Even though organized labor has lined up behind Coakley’s campaign, a Suffolk University poll conducted last week showed Brown leading Coakley 53 percent to 45 percent among voters in union households. The big test for Brown is whether he can hold onto the blue-collar crowd and mobilize them to the polls.

In a late play for this demographic, Coakley’s campaign and its allies launched an attack portraying Brown as a Wall Street Republican for opposing Obama’s proposed tax on large banks. The Coakley campaign also scrambled to put out a TV ad one day before the election showing her politicking with union members at an American Legion hall.

To get a sense of whether Brown is winning the working-class vote, look no further than early returns from the heavily Democratic Irish Catholic South Shore, where Obama suffered significant drop-offs from John Kerry’s vote in 2004. Brown needs to carry the towns of Braintree and Weymouth, two Democratic strongholds that Obama barely held in 2008.

If Brown wins 55 percent in neighboring Quincy, which Obama carried by 18 points (58 percent to 40 percent), it would be devastating to the Coakley campaign.


2.) Watch for signs of life from the Democratic machine

Brown has campaigned on a message of taking on the state’s entrenched Democratic majority, but it’s that very machine that is crucial to Coakley’s ability to win.

That get-out-the-vote effort will be centered in Boston and the academic hub of Cambridge, the liberal base of the state, which needs to come out strongly for Coakley to prevail. Obama’s last-minute rally for Coakley in Boston was a recognition that the campaign needs to re-energize his 2008 coalition, particularly getting young, African-American and Hispanic voters to the polls.

In Boston, her biggest ally is longtime Mayor Thomas Menino, whose urban political machine is legendary and helped him comfortably win reelection last year, despite opposing Democratic challengers running on a Brown-like message of change.

But last month’s Democratic primary results suggest she can’t automatically assume enthusiastic support: Even though Coakley won most municipalities across the state, Rep. Michael Capuano outpolled her in Boston and Cambridge.

“I think turnout in the Boston area is crucial,” said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Coakley also needs proportionally higher turnout in the Democratic-leaning cities of Springfield and Worcester, where party get-out-the-vote efforts have also been concentrated. In 2008, Obama won 77 percent of the vote in Springfield and 68 percent of the vote in Worcester.

Coakley needs around 35 percent turnout in those core areas, analysts estimate, with about a 50,000-to-60,000-vote margin in Boston and a 15,000-to-20,000-vote margin in Cambridge. One plugged-in Massachusetts Democratic strategist said he’s hoping for 40 percent turnout in the cities to feel good about Coakley’s chances — enough to offset what he expects to be a strong Brown performance in the suburbs.

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3.) The I-495 suburbs

The last Republican to win statewide office in Massachusetts, former Gov. Mitt Romney, outlined the winning strategy for the GOP in a solidly Democratic state: Rack up big margins of victory in the outer Boston suburban towns, particularly those along the I-495 ring.

This part of the state is among the most Republican (at least by Massachusetts standards) and is home to many voters who are new to the region and the state. Voters here are resistant to high taxes — anti-tax referendums poll well here — and Obama’s health care plan is most likely viewed unfavorably as well.

Brown needs to win at least 55 percent of the vote in this area, particularly in high-growth places like Marlborough, Taunton and Haverhill — three towns that Romney carried by double digits in 2002 but Obama won in 2008. He’ll also need to rack up double-digit margins of victory in his home base around Wrentham and Foxborough.

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston, said his most recent data showed Brown expanding his lead in the crucial suburban bellwethers of Gardner, Fitchburg and Peabody — a sign, he said, that the race was “opening up.”

“Brown could have a 10-point lead here,” said Paleologos.





4.) The female vote

Since the beginning of her campaign, Coakley has targeted female voters as part of her call to break the glass ceiling in the male-dominated political culture of Massachusetts. If she wins, Coakley would become the first female senator in the state’s history.

The latest Public Policy Polling survey shows a significant gender gap: Coakley leads among women by 4 points, 50 percent to 46 percent, and Brown dominates among men, 56 percent to 41 percent.

But recent history suggests that women can make the difference in a close race. Obama carried male voters in the 2008 presidential primary, according to exit polling, but Hillary Clinton prevailed, thanks to an electorate that was 58 percent female.

The Massachusetts Democratic Party, keenly aware of the need to rally women to Coakley’s side, launched a blistering attack over the weekend, alleging that Brown wanted to turn away rape victims from hospitals.

If those tactics effectively rally women to the polls, it’s a good sign for Coakley. So take a close look at the composition of the electorate on election night. If women make up a clear majority, according to exit polls, Coakley may have an edge.

5.) Vicki Kennedy’s impact

Endorsements don’t always have an impact in high-stakes races, but Democrats say Vicki Kennedy’s late endorsement of Coakley could prove pivotal in her last-minute push to win the Cape and the southeastern part of the state — where the Kennedy family name still rings strong.

“I think Kennedy’s endorsement in the last days is the factor that is most likely to get into people’s conscience,” said James Roosevelt, a Massachusetts member of the Democratic National Committee. “I think if we see a result that is different from what the poll is showing, that will be in part because of the Kennedy endorsement.”

Barnstable and Plymouth counties along Cape Cod are the places where Kennedy’s memory would most likely rescue Coakley in the eleventh hour. If she wins those counties — bellwether areas that Obama won narrowly in 2008 — it is a good sign for her campaign.

Jeffrey Berry, a Tufts University political scientist, cautioned that Coakley can’t rely on the Kennedy family name to pull her across the finish line.

“I think Democrats are surprised that the Kennedy seat might be going Republican, but most voters don’t relate Coakley to the Kennedy family.”

In a sign that voters in the state might not be looking for a candidate to carry on the Kennedy legacy, Kennedy last week called her late husband’s seat “the people’s seat,” not the “Kennedy seat,” in a closing Coakley ad.



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Massachusetts Needs New Blood, "Momentum"..Scott Brown

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GOP Miracle Senate Win In Massachusetts? Brown's Ahead

Poll: Scott Brown Ahead Of Martha Coakley


Republicans have a very real chance at orchestrating a Massachusetts miracle in this month’s special Senate election to determine Ted Kennedy’s successor, at least according to a new Democratic poll out tonight.

The shocking poll from Public Policy Polling shows Republican state senator Scott Brown leading Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley by one point, 48 to 47 percent, which would mean the race is effectively tied.

Among independents, who make up 51 percent of the electorate in the Bay State, Brown leads Coakley 63 percent to 31 percent.

Just 50 percent of voters view Coakley favorably, while 42 percent viewing her unfavorably.

Brown, who began an advertising blitz this month, sports a strong 57 percent favorability rating, with just 25 percent viewing him unfavorably – very strong numbers for a Republican in the heavily Democratic state.

On the issue of health care, which Brown has emphasized that he would be the deciding vote against, 47 percent said they opposed the plan in Congress while 41 percent supported it.

A Rasmussen Reports survey from earlier this week had showed Coakley's lead down to 9 points, and in last night’s debate she had questioned the accuracy of those numbers, suggesting her margin of victory would in fact be larger.

The survey of 744 likely voters was conducted January 7-9 and had a margin of error of 3.6 percent.

In his analysis, pollster Tom Jensen noted that Coakley is suffering from a less-than excited Democratic electorate, a dynamic similar to the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia that Democrats lost last year .

“The Massachusetts Senate race is shaping up as a potential disaster for Democrats,” said PPP pollster Dean Debnam.. “Martha Coakley’s complacent campaign has put Scott Brown in a surprisingly strong position and she will need to step it up in the final week to win a victory once thought inevitable.”



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Mass. Court Denies GOP's Effort To Block Kirk's Appointment

Court denies GOP bid to block Paul Kirk

A Massachusetts judge on Friday rejected a Republican effort to block Senate appointee Paul Kirk from taking office.

Judge Thomas Connolly of Suffolk County Superior Court denied a motion filed by the Massachusetts Republican Party seeking an injunction against Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, who they said overstepped his constitutional authority by using an emergency declaration to pave the way for Kirk’s appointment.

Since most Massachusetts laws do not go into effect for 90 days, Patrick had to issue the declaration so that legislation allowing him to name a replacement senator—which won final approval Wednesday—could take effect immediately.

Republicans filed their motion Thursday, the same day that Patrick chose Kirk to temporarily replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Kirk, a long-time Kennedy friend and associate, is scheduled to be sworn into office in Washington Friday afternoon.

At issue in the case was a letter Patrick sent to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin Thursday morning declaring the new legislation an emergency law.

“So that the people of the Commonwealth may have full representation in the United States Senate without delay,” the governor wrote, “I declare that it is in the public interest and convenience that this Act take effect immediately.”

Kirk, 71, will serve in office only until the Jan. 19 special election to replace Kennedy, but his appointment was a win for Democrats who have been seeking a 60-vote Senate majority as lawmakers debate health care reform and other issues this fall.

For weeks, Republican state legislators have voiced their opposition to giving Patrick the authority to make the interim appointment and GOP lawmakers used parliamentary delaying tactics to try to stall the bill. Republicans charged that the change to the state’s succession law was a hypocritical exercise since Democrats had designed the current succession law in 2004 to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, from appointing a senator.

On Friday, Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh called the GOP attempt to block the appointment “shameful.”

“It is a serious disservice to the people of our state for the Massachusetts Republican Party to try and block today’s swearing-in of Paul Kirk to the United States Senate,” he said in a statement. “Massachusetts needs two strong voices in the Senate today to help us create jobs, protect our health care coverage and work with constituents who need help; that work cannot wait until next month or next year.”

In a statement following the judge’s ruling, the state’s GOP chairwoman, Jennifer Nassour, said the successful Democratic-led push to change the state’s election law was a “purely partisan” move and suggested that lawmakers would be held accountable.

“I urge the voters of Massachusetts to not allow the courts the final say in this matter,” Nassour said. “I believe the ultimate remedy to the untenable situation on Beacon Hill can be found in the voting booths.”



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