MASSACHUSETTS
      Jan. 19, 2010 U.S. Senate (Special Election)

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 x 01/19
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+Scott Brown (R)
1,168,178
 51.86%
Martha Coakley (D)
 1,060,861
 47.10%
Joseph L. Kennedy (Unen.)
 		22,388 0.99%
all others
 1,155
  

2,252,582
Total votes: 2,253,727 including 1,145 blank.
Plurality: 107,317 votes (4.76 percentage points).
MA Secretary of the Commonwealth




REPUBLICAN PICK-UP
Notes:  In an historic shocker, Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) lost to state Sen. Scott Brown (R) in the Jan. 19, 2010 special election.  Coakley started out as the strong favorite to fill the seat that had been held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D), but thanks to many missteps by her "disastrous" campaign, Brown pulled ahead in the closing weeks.  Brown's win (1, 2) cost Democrats their 60-seat majority in the Senate at a time when Congress was in the midst of debating the Afforable Care Act.

Kennedy, first elected to the Senate in 1962, died from cancer on Aug. 25, 2009.  On Sept. 24 Gov. Deval Patrick (D) appointed Kennedy friend and confidante Paul G. Kirk (D) to fill the seat as interim senator with the understanding that Kirk would not run in the special election.

Coakley, who was elected Attorney General in 2006 after serving for eight years as District Attorney of Middlesex County, announced her candidacy on Sept. 3.  In the Dec. 8, 2009 Democratic primary, she won with 46.6% of the vote (311,548 votes of 668,926 tallied), defeating U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (27.7%), City Year co-founder Alan Khazei (13.4%) and businessman and entrepreneur Stephen Paliuca (12.0%).  

Brown served in the State Senate since 2004 after serving in the State House from 1998 to 2004 and earlier on the Wrentham Board of Selectmen and as Wrentham property assessor.  He was a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard and served in the JAG Corps.  Brown also worked in modeling when he was in law school.  He announced his candidacy on Sept. 12.  Brown easily won the Dec. 9 Republican primary, garnering 88.8% of the vote (146,057 votes of 165,007 tallied).

Also qualifying for the Jan. 19 ballot was independent Joseph L. Kennedy, a Libertarian. 

Coakley insisted that Kennedy be included in any debates, while Brown pressed for one-on-one forums.  Ultimately Coakley, Brown, and Kennedy debated four times:

Dec. 22 - WBZ Radio;

Dec. 23 - WBZ-TV;

Jan. 8 - WGBY-TV in Springfield broadcast; and

Jan. 11 - at UMass Boston sponsored by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate (>).
 
Top issues in the campaign were health care reform and the economy (the national unemployment rate was over 9 percent).  President Barack Obama made a late visit to rally with Coakley on Jan. 17 at Northeastern University (>).

From the Dec. 9 primary to Election Day Jan 19 comprised a period of just six weeks, and that included the Christmas holidays; this left the campaigns little time to make adjustments and corrections.  After the election, most attention focused on the missteps of the Coakley campaign—and there were many.  It must be noted as well that Brown was a personable candidate with a breadth of experience, and that his team, which included key advisors to former Gov. Mitt Romney, were a savvy group.
 
 
Campaign Managers:
Scott Brown:  Beth Lindstrom
(Sept. 2009)  Founder and CEO at Mantelscapes.com, Feb. 2008-Sept. 2009.  Secretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation to Gov. Mitt Romney, 2003-06; also commissioner on the Mass. Lottery Commission, Jan. 2003-May 2006.  CEO of FreeStateLotto.com, Feb. 2000-Feb. 2002.  Executive director (1997-99) and assistant executive director (1992-97) of the Massachusetts State Lottery.

Martha Coakley:  Kevin Conroy
Deputy Attorney General in the Mass. Attorney General's Office from Mar. 2007.  Chief of staff and general counsel for the New England Council, Mar. 2005-Feb. 2007.  Practiced law at Foley Hoag.  J.D. from Boston College Law School, 1999; B.A. in political science and government from Tufts University, 1994.


See also:
Paul Kix.  "Scenes from the Revolution."  Boston Magazine, Mar. 1, 2010.

Staff.  "How Scott Brown Friended, Tweeted and LOLed His Way Into The Senate.  Wired, Feb. 7, 2010.

Lee Mason.  "Who were the biggest losers in Coakley's run?"  MetroWest Daily News,  Jan. 21, 2010.

Matt Viser.  "Coakley aides paint portrait of missteps on the campaign trail."  Boston.com, Jan. 21, 2010.

Tracey D. Samuelson.  "Coakley concedes race: five lessons from her campaign."  The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 20, 2010.

Alexander Burns.  "Brown pulls off historic upset."  Politico, Jan. 19, 2010.

Rachel Martin.  "Kennedy Friend Paul Kirk to Fill Interim Seat."  ABC News, Sept. 24, 2009.
 



 
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