Dems Question Why Brown Is Gaining On Coakley

By Monica Brady-Myerov
Jan 14, 2010, 7:14 AM
61 Comments

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Republican Scott Brown greets supporters in Springfield, Mass., on Friday, Jan. 8. (Nancy Palmieri/AP)

Republican Scott Brown greets supporters in Springfield on Jan. 8. (AP)

BOSTON — Republican Scott Brown’s campaign language has the aura of a revolutionary crusade. His election corps is called the Brown Brigade, he talks about red invading the blue state and he calls his fundraisers “money bombs.”

State Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Nassour gives Brown a lot of credit for energizing Republicans. “When you see someone with such a great positive attitude about what he’s doing and when people keep tell you, ‘God you have an uphill battle,’ and you walk in with a smile on your face and say, ‘I can do this,’ you start to make people believe that you can do it,” she said.

Coupled with his celebrity magazine good looks — he was Cosmopolitan’s sexiest man in 1982 — and friendly personality, Brown has become a true contender to Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Democrats have themselves to blame for giving Republicans hope, said long-time Democratic strategist Michael Goldman, at Government Insight Group. “I think it was easy to believe post the primary that the Brown camp was never going to get the kind of traction or attention that would force her to engage,” he said.

Vicki Kennedy listens to Martha Coakley after she formally endorsed Coakley in the race for her late husband Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat on Thursday, Jan. 7. (Elise Amendola/AP)

So Coakley coasted. She opened two field offices to Brown’s nine across the state. He’s been out every day on the campaign trail; she virtually disappeared over the holidays. He was the first to mount TV ads and held his own in the debates.

Early on, Democrats let Brown define himself, Goldman said, as “a really swell fellow, basically a moderate Republican — maybe even a conservative Democrat — when in fact this person has been and is an extremely conservative Republican, far to the right of anyone we’ve elected in this state.”

Here are some of Scott Brown’s positions: He favors the death penalty. He is against gay marriage. He questions whether global warming is man-made or natural. He does not believe waterboarding is torture. He says he supports Roe v. Wade but he has not promised to protect abortion rights, and he’s been endorsed by the anti-abortion group Massachusetts Citizens for Life.

Ron Kaufman, former White House director and Republican National Committeeman for Massachusetts, said Brown’s climb in the polls should be credited to his stance on issues voters care about.

Voters are “upset with health care, they are upset with spending, they are upset with huge deficits, they are upset with terrorism and they are in sync with where Scott Brown is on issues and where she’s not,” Kaufman said.

But in recent polls, voters say they see Coakley as the best candidate to handle issues such as taxes, the economy and health care. So that gets back to campaign strategy to explain why she’s not dominating the race.

For instance, Democrats should have reacted strongly when Brown compared himself with President John F. Kennedy, said Steve Grossman, former chair of the state Democratic Party. But Grossman said they did not get the wake up call until some recent polls showed a close race.

Then, Grossman said, the Coakley campaign realized: “Oh my goodness, we may have taken a little too much for granted and it’s time for us to get to work.”

There was another surprise this week when Brown raised $1.3 million in one day of online fund-raising. Now, Sen. John Kerry is sending e-mails to supporters nationwide calling the race a “dead heat” and asking for help.

In their hearts and in their internal polling, Democrats know it would be almost impossible for the so-called “Kennedy seat” to go to a Republican. But now they are upping their involvement in the final days of this campaign to make sure.

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PJ

I think it because of a number of factors: Coakley took a month off thinking the race would be easy; Brown is a great con-artist, looks good, sounds good and knows how to lie just like Romney did. No matter what he says he is against pro-choice, taxing the wealthy, healthcare for all (remember Massachusetts will make out under the plan with the DC money towards our system), peace in Afghanistan and other places in the world and torture. Brown wants to send our troops all over the world. (I wonder if he ever did active combat duty?). Coakley isn’t the best; however she does stand for everything Massachusetts wants.
PJ

I forgot to mention that I received a call today from a woman in South Carolina who asked me to pray to Jesus for Brown to win (I am not Christian I am Jewish). Then I received a recorded call from Pat Boone asking me to vote for Brown. Who do they think we in Massachusetts are…..idiots?
Craig T. Spratt

Sorry, Jayrae, I know the right wing in the US wants to shed the historical baggage of fascism, a right wing ideology, and disown Hitler, the supreme fascist (read: rightist) of all time, but that can only be done by distorting history. Hitler was an extreme rightist; the reactionary right in Germany supported him; it would have preferred to avoid having him rise to supreme power but by that time it was too late; the right in Germany liked him for his anti-communism, which of course is a philosophy of the right wing; he did everything he could could to break the power of the left in Germany — unquestionably a right wing agenda. He used the word socialist in his party’s title to compete with the socialists and communists in Germany, who were strong with the working class in Germany at the time. He had great support from large capitalists in Germany, including Krupp — not exactly the power base of the socialists. He was a brother in arms to the Italian fascist Mussolini (unquestionably a rightist), who imprisoned leaders of Italy’s left. Hitler was a big supporter of, and inspiration to, the Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco (an extreme reactionary rightist).

Turning to Scott Brown, he seems to be softpedaling his Tea Party style Rush Limbaughism and coming on like Romney. That is certainly disingenuous, as someone said earlier. I see he is against Obama’s proposed tax on banker bonuses; on the ground that this would be passed on to consumers. But he’s only heard to raise the concern for the consumers because by doing so he can attack Obama and government at the same time. He didn’t criticize the bonuses to the bankers when they first came out, although they will also be paid ultimately by the consumer. This is because its’ OK by Brown for the consumer to pay through the nose if the money goes to business interests; but if the money would go to government, then that’s a big problem and has to be stopped. I’m with the commenter who mentioned Teddy Roosevelt, as an example of what was good about Republicanism; yes, he charged up San Juan Hill, but he got the government (the government!) into environmentalism by establishing the Dept. of Interior, and he was a trust-buster enemy of big money interests. Those latter items are two of the biggest reasons he’s on Mount Rushmore.
http://nortwestdad@hotmail.com kinthenorthwest

Coakley has been cutting her own throat these last several weeks, and the worse was going so negative in her campaign against Brown.
She even laughed at Brown standing outside in the cold campaigning, saying she was not that stupid.
Ruth Baker

PJ and Others:

I don’t know – is it because they are idiots, too?
I mentioned previously that Scott Brown was everywhere on the internet – you couldn’t find very many neutral sites about him, most sites touted how marvelous he was/is. He was even on the horoscopes a few days ago, for a short period of time, but then took himself off of those sites.
This morning, Scott Brown is suddenly up on the horoscopes again, in a banner – with photos of Dick Cheney, and George Bush! (futurescopes.com)
Ruth Baker

My mistake:
The photos of Brown with Cheney and Bush, on the horoscopes are against Brown -for a change.
Even if I was in favor of Brown, I would wonder how he could plug up the internet with almost all positive sights about himself, as he has.

I’d like to see a press release of him getting caught, playing “footsies” with someone at Logan, seeing how those who evangelise “family values” seem to get caught up in situations that are anything but.
Mick

So Massachusetts is seemingly likely to elect Scott Brown as the next Massachusetts Senator. Wait until he runs for President!

What do we get? A faux populist who is ideologically committed to the same policies that got this country into the mess it is in.

Does anyone think Scott Brown would be so far ahead if Congressman Mike Capuano was the Democratic candidate? He was exactly the type of two-fisted feisty blue-collar political brawler that the Democratic Party needs to fight for and connect with the average working man and woman.

While Coakley is precisely the type of aloof elitist that Conservatives claim Liberals are, whose resume might read well but with utterly no common touch. I am embarrassed and disgusted!

Scott Brown deserves to win based on his outstanding campaign however the stakes are too high nationally.

The Democratic party needs a broom sweeping after this election is over, no wait democracy itself, we have got the “Australian ballot” maybe its time to adopt their other innovation, the PR Electoral system in Massachusetts to really shake things up and give every voter a voice!
F. S. Brown

The American people HATE the government run Health Plan!!
Wake up fellow Democrats!! I’m voting for Scott Brown….1st Republican vote in my life!!
B. Laskey

@F. S. Brown: No, the “American people” don’t hate health care reform, I voted for Coakley precisely so we can have national health care reform.
Gail

Holly – Here is the preample to the United States Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,[1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Please note “We the people of the United States”
Ruth Baker

Drew, Anna, Craig, Mick, et al.: Very good comments. . .

I’d add that we’ll see what Brown does in his Senate seat; I think his main aim, it’s pretty obvious, is to eventually take advantage of his positon to create a revolving door situation for himself, esp. gaining megabucks through military contracts.