Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bluest of Blue now streaked with Red!

Massachusetts is one of the most liberal democratic states in the country.You feel it here. Every major politic post (i.e. U.S. Senators and congress members) are Democrat. Most of the times Republicans are not even on the ballot for local government elections. This state is really blue, through and through, until last night. Oh, last night changed everything and showed how upset the people are with the current situation in our country. We are living in a recession and losing jobs and it seems not much is being done to fix it and that the current health care legislation will just send us further into debt. I am all for overhauling health care, but not with this bill because it was too hastily put together with too many special favors to different states. They need to begin again and the Congress and Senate Democrats and Republicans need to work together.

So yesterday, a special election for the late Ted Kennedy's senate seat was held and it was won by Massachusetts state senator, Scott Brown. He is a Republican. He beat Martha Coakley, the democrat. I was shocked, but not really surprised as Brown gained much momentum in the past two weeks. The Democrats thought they had the race won. The Democratic primary which was held in December was almost like the election itself. Whatever democrat won the primary was basically winning the Senate seat. This democrat was Martha Coakley. This was front page news and leading stories on the news. I think Scott Brown's victory in the Republican primary was mentioned in a one minute segment and I think they showed his picture. He was not a problem. How could he win? Coakley had a 30 point lead in December.

Well, what happened? Coakley did not really campaign, but Brown did. One of Brown's first ad defined him as Scott Brown from Wrentham who drives a truck. This truck became part of his campaign in some weird way because he drove it all over the state campaigning. He did not start with much money and had volunteers. The Republican party did not provide him with any help. They shied away from him though Senator John McCain met with Brown and provided support along with former Massachusetts Mitt Romney. Also, Doug Flutie and Curt Schilling endorsed him. FYI, did you know Doug Flutie has a band? Slowly, Brown's campaign gained momentum and the Democrats finally took notice when the polls started showing he was closing the gap on Coakley.

Oh, the t.v. ads were malicious on Brown. I stopped watching them. But they didn't work. In the past week, former President Bill Clinton and President Obama came to Boston and campaigned for Coakley. They pulled out the big guns, but it did not really do anything. Brown, whose two main endorsement were Senator McCain and Mitt Romney, just moved forward and waited to see what Massachusetts wanted. The people wanted Brown. He won the election! This blue state, this very blue state all the sudden had some red infused. The people used this election to show they need better changes. We all need to come together and find solutions to the ongoing problems of the economy and jobs. We can't cling so solidly to either the left or the right. It is hurting our country. Lets find some common ground and work for good solutions that hold our leaders accountable to us. They represent us! We need them to do good work for us.

Also, it probably didn't help Coakley that she said on the radio that Curt Schilling was a Yankess fan. You just don't say that here in Boston!

So now Massachusetts has some red. I wonder if red and blue can exist here in Massachusetts?

2 comments:

Renee said...

I was shocked too! But I think it is pretty cool!

Jessica Mangelson said...

I loved watching the results Tuesday... very cool!