Dems Question Why Brown Is Gaining On Coakley

By Monica Brady-Myerov (@bradymyerov)
Jan 14, 2010, 7:14 AM
61 Comments

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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Noah

“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 versus Wade but he has not promised to protect abortion rights”

So, basically, he’s with Hitler.
Patriotson

Thank God, there is hope. Democrat’s have put this country on the road to ruin. Brown is qualified to be Mass Senator because he is listening to the concerns of the people. Ignoring the voters like this congress has should send a earthquake through the majority congress and give them a wakeup call. “We the people,” hope the disintranchised voters will go out and vote like they have never voted before. Defeat the Union and Democratic vote buying policy of the Obama and majority congress. Vote against Reid; vote against Pelosi; vote against Obamacare; vote against bank bailouts; vote against nationalization of public owned corporations; vote against vote buying; back door deals; corruption.
Galen

Noah, your post does two important things.

First, it delights the reader that Scott Brown is taking such enlightened positions.

Second, it shows that the outlook of the anti-Brown elements is a truly twisted one.

Thanks, buddy. You’ve been very helpful.
ConservativeMom

Yes, Noah… and so are all the rest of us conservatives.

Here’s to Brown running a great campaign… not that they’ll seat him in time for a vote on health care, though. But you can sure as hell bet they’ll seat her in a hurry if she wins.
http://www.aldobender.com Aldo

I hope the best for Brown (and the Nation) but am always aware of these corrupt Dem political machines that always seem to manufacture votes out of thin air in the middle of the night. And if you agree with me, you must be a racist…
http://jrdonohue.com John Donohue

How about: he thinks the seat up for election does not belong to the Democrats, the Kennedy dynasty or the legacy of one of its dead princes: the seat belongs to the citizens.
Erik

I think the tightening polls and a national campaign have energized the Republicans and caught Coakley with her pants (uh, dress?) down. It’s possible that Brown could win but I wouldn’t be surprised if the right wing buzz that national Republicans have stirred up in order to energize their base also stirs up liberals, who probably outnumber conservatives here. Next week should be very interesting.
Gordon

Patriotson: I believe the word you are looking for is “disenfranchised”… the word “disintranchised” does not exist, or at least it didn’t until you made it up. Been taking vocabulary lessons from Mr. Bush, have we? It’s hardly surprising that someone so delusional about the origins of our country’s situation doesn’t even know what voting bloc they belong to.

Of course, America’s financial ruin and health crises CAN’T have been caused by 8 years of Republican deregulation or reckless financial policy, it’s all Obama’s fault and it all happened in the last year. John McCain didn’t “suspend his campaign” to go to Washington and work on the bailout package – which President Bush could have vetoed but didn’t – it was only the Democrats who showed up to Congress that week. GM collapsed because of Nancy Pelosi, right? Not their own ineptitude and poor planning and persistence in building gas guzzling crapboxes.

Get your head out of the sand, already.
MollyInMass

You don’t quite seem to get it, yet. Senator Brown has represented me for years, and even though I am much more conservative than he is, he has always respected my position and the position of all his constitutents, some who also might be more liberal.

In other words, he represents us to the best of his ability to do so–not big corporations, not a big political machine, not a particular party, not his own ideology–but us, the people who have elected him to be OUR VOICE.

God Bless you, Scott Brown,–you are what the founders had in mind when they designed our government.
Molly

There is a subtle bias to this article – in favor of Coakley – and although I am not surprised, I am disappointed. The independent thinkers of Massachusetts are ill-served by coverage such as this.

None of Martha Coakley’s unpopular opinions are reported: for example, her desire that terrorists such as the Christmas bomber and the Sept 11th mastermind be tried in civilian courts, with all the rights and protections of American citizens, including – alarmingly! – the right to remain silent.

Also, Scott Browns words on whether global warming is natural or man-made are: “probably a combination of both”. This is the same view held by many top scientists.

Coakley is to the extreme left of the death penalty debate. If it was up to her, even the Sept. 11 mastermind would not receive the death penalty, but would be fed and housed in prison by American taxpayers, the same people that he would be trying to kill if he were free.

Coakley is also to the extreme left of the abortion issue: she is in favor of partial-birth abortions. Brown supports Roe v. Wade, but is against partial birth abortions.

As politics and politicians are imperfect, balance is necessary. With John Kerry as our senior senator, Scott Brown represents balance for the citizens of Massachusetts.
Molly

Also, this article does not report the “liberal” initiatives that are supported by Scott Brown:
Brown supports stem cell research, and would have voted to seat Sonia Sotomayor.
MC

Brown sounds like a good man. I hope he gets “the people’s” seat.
jeffe

I don’t like Brown and everything he stands for.
His comments from the last debate showed that he is willing to take the endorsement from the right to life groups and turn around and say he supports Roe versus Wade but at the same time will not protect the rights, something not right here. I get the feeling I can’t trust this vain man who looks to me like he spend way to much time in front of a mirror. He uses vague language to side step issues such as global warming and health care.

I’m an Independent. That said I’m not a big fan of Coakley but she will get my vote on Tuesday. It the lesser of two evils in my view.
John

NPR keeps talking about “Ted Kennedy’s seat”. It’s not “Ted Kennedy’s seat” it’s The People’s seat just like Scott Brown said. Coakley will not get my vote for three reasons: 1. she will vote with the Democrats in the Senate 100% of the time. I’d say there are enough drones in the Senate and the people of Mass. deserve better 2. Her attack ads are absolutely base and vile, unbecoming of a candidate for US Senate 3. Brown is not an out of control tax and spend liberal like Coakley
Hardy Kornfeld

I’m a conservative patriot, and that’s why I’ll be voting for Martha Coakley. The Republican party has veered to a radical extreme that I find most disturbing. What happened to voices like Teddy Roosevelt who busted the trusts, Dwight Eisenhower who warned against the rising military-industrial complex, and Abraham Lincoln who described our government as being of, for and by the people?
http://www.wbur.org/2010/01/14/senate-race-2#comments John

I donot live in MA,
but this election impacts the whole country.
My hope is that Coakly loses. Have sent money to the Campaign. The people in power have no regard for the little people who elected them. Coakley money is from where? Brown money is from where?
It also seems the strong arm tactics are coming out on one side, just as it did with the Obama election.
Does anyone in there right mind think the insurance companies and unions are doing what is good for you or the country.
I’m no Bush fan! but something is being overlooked, Democrats controlled it for the last four years of the Bush Admin. It seems so many have a short memory.
Obama and cohorts want to pass this as a legacy, no matter the cost to the party. Do you honestly think this will be good for us peasants. If it was a clean bill why not let us read it. No done in back rooms with major lobbist. Now do you think lobbist are for us peasants?
I think independents in Ma will make the final decision and hope it is the right one.
THE DYNASTY NEEDS TO COME TO AN END IN MA.
THE PRINCE AND PRINCESES NEED THE WAKE UP CALL AND THOSE WHO WANT IN THE COURT.
ROYALTY IS BACK, PLEASE VOTE IT DOWN.
My one big hope is that the majority of both parties loose big to new comers like Brown who speak for the peasant. Concerned citizens for (Title it the Peasants’ Revolt) We are seen as peasants by thes elete, but none have the Ba,,, to say it open, but you can see it on their faces.
Concerned citizen
who pays taxes
ENOUGH VOTE HER DOWN and her friends, ELETIST..
John
bill

You can feel the desperation in our failed Attorney Generals campaign as sweet Martha lets the pit vipers from the DNC and unions launch dishonest attack ad after attack ad. Then her goons rough up a reporter and she claims to know nothing about it even though there is a picture of her looking at the reporter lying on the ground with her goon hovering above. She is beneath contempt
lynn

I strongly believe that the fate of our country rests on this election. If Scott Brown in not elected – just bend over and take your lickings. Mass Residents – PLEASE SAVE US!!!!!!
Ruth Baker

I’m with many who don’t like many things Martha Coakely has done in her capacity as Att. G, although, there are some things I Do like. I think she is the lesser of two evils.
I’m wondering why she, as most Dems, are not aggressive in verbally defending themselves against the mostly very false attacks and the twisting of her opinions by Brown and his supporters. Many are even painting Brown’s posing for Cosmo as a “positive”, which I would personally go after, if I were Coakely.
I wonder, if he’s such a “regular guy”, how is it that if you go online to try to obtain any anti-Sciott Brown opinions, (even on Google), you are very hard pressed to find any; must be all those out of state tea party (corporate fronts) affiliates giving him a lot of bucks to plaster his name and image everywhere – to the exclusion of everyone else.
Also, in another forum, someone mentioned that Brown is not a regular guy, as he’s like people to believein another way, even in his local area; apparently, he bikes, and every year, he has a new and more (thousands of dollars) expensive bike than the year before, and is very narcissistic, acording to that person who has seen him at those bike meets. Who’s the “elitist”?
According to The Libertarian Party – and his own record -Brown is not at all anti – tax.
I wonder why, if he’s such a serious, tough, guy, he’s even got his campaign and image accompanying many horoscope sites.
Diane Fallon

If the outcome of this election didn’t affect the entire nation, I wouldn’t have cared who wins. Any State that continued to elect a man who killed another human being with such wanton disregard for life as Kennedy did, deserves all the misery that comes its way. Massachusetts doesn’t deserve Brown, but the rest of us do.
mom11

Molly, it was even more than a subtle bias in this article. Obama and Brown both favor a woman’s right to choose, although Brown does not favor partial-birth abortion. They both believe tHAT
http://ertwngr.blogspot.com eRtwngr

There is one radical and one populist in this race. The radical is Martha Coakley who thinks us dirty smelly common folks are beneath her. Union bosses may pump lots of cash into her campaign but rank and file cops, firemen, pipefitters, electrical workers are all for Brown.

Meanwhile the average donation to Brown this week was under 80 bucks. No invitation-only black tie affair in Washington with lobbyists. Just us guys and gals.
Blake

Murtha Coakley is a tried and true demothug machine hack.
Brown offers the Bay state a chance to redeem itself after foisting that oxygen stealing idiot Frank and allowing dead Ted to coast on our dime for all of those years.
The Kennedy clan as inbred as they are do not own Massachusetts and will not decide who gets the People’s seat.
Can’t wait for the poll intimidation by the Coakley hired ACORN maggots and SEIU cretins.
Donaldo

Vote the hack; it’s important.
P. WIEDEMANN

GOD BLESS YOU SCOTT BROWN FOR BRINGING SANITY TO MASS. AND HOPEFULLY TO THE REST OF THE RECKLESS ADMIN.
Bob H

Scott Brown wins because he is a man with better ethics and principles.
mom11

Wherre is Tina Fey when we need her to be Martha Coakley?

“I have a sister who lives overseas, and she’s been in England and now lives in the Middle East. I spend a lot of time on my own traveling because I’m interested in it, less so as attorney general, and my responsibilities don’t take me overseas.”
Fred

This article is not subtly biased, it is overtly biased. Here is how:
The articled describe Scott Brown this way:
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

1) No one is in “FAVOR” of the death penalty, but people recognize that sometimes it is the only thing to satisfy the publics outrage over people like those of 9/11 By using the word “Favor” and leading off with a sentence with death in it the writer sets the tone.
2) He is in favor of promoting traditional marriage but in the end deferring to the people. The MA elitists have prevented any referendum.
3) No one knows the cause of global warming, but he says whatever the reason we need to due something, including reducing dependence on oil
4) He believes waterboarding can be used successfully to interrogate. (And it has.)
5) He does not believe in unrestricted abortions for anyone at anytime for any reason and having the taxpayers pay for it.

So clearly, the wording shows an overt bias on the part of the writer. Its NPR after all.
I am from MA and I am not fooled by this writer, I will vote for Brown.
Paul in Massachusetts

I completely expected the NPR bias in the report. It doesn’t suprise me any more. Notice that the reason that the race is tight is because of poor Democrat campaign strategy. NPR could never accept that perhaps…just perhaps, the citizens don’t want nationalized health care, 5th amendment rights for international terrorists, and SEIU control over the economy. It couldn’t be….or could it?
Sarah

This kind of reporting is why, as much as I listen to WBUR, every time I hear the appeal for money during a fundraiser where they ask “How much is this station worth to you?” My answer is “Not much.” I don’t give money to Fox News, so why should I give money to WBUR? The conservative radio audience is treated as a novelty, without any real sense of this same audience’s position on politics, or anything else for that matter. Until the Scott Brown Republican, to coin a term (hopefully one of national significance in the wake of next week’s election) is truly respected as much as a Coakley voter, I’ll save my pennies and donate to other causes – unless it’s possible to donate directly to “Car Talk” and bypass the WBUR newsroom altogether. Then I’ll reconsider.
matthew

pro-criminals, pro-sodomy, pro-infanticide, thats our left-wing nut job Martha….she is the real Hitler!
Lucy Chapman

The extremes of rhetoric on both sides are appalling. Still, I’m with Martha Coakley because she is more reasonable than Brown. His good looks will not help us get health care reform, which this country desperately needs. I hope that every person in this state who voted for Obama will be at the polls on Tuesday helping his policies move forward.
Tom

If Scott Brown were offering something new, then I would consider him. But he’s not. I see no new ideas coming from him or the GOP. A vote for Brown simply gives us more of what we got during the Bush years.
Frank Patriot

I would suggest that every able-bodied man, woman and child show up to support Scott Brown at the Coakley event. I would bring in every Patriot from across the state to let Obama know that we are taking back OUR country. It is like sending out a call for the Minutemen to meet on the village greens. The time has come America. What better way to show the world the New American Revolution. Will will take back our country from the Liberals and let it begin where it began over 200 years ago! When the media comes to cover Clinton the Patriots of this great land will be there to greet him. Let’s see the media spin it then! Cut and paste this comment to every comment section in the Boston Globe. E-mail it to other towns. Send it to your friends. Send it to the Tea Baggers as Obama, Pelosi and Reed refer to true Patriots. Show them how the Patriots are going to move this country in the other direction and let it be a message to the world that there is a whole new United States of America being born!

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

CUT AND PASTE AND GET THE WORD OUT!
Roy Salazar

The sole reason Brown has gained on Coakley and will win….He is against the Government Takeover of Healthcare & apparently so are the Mass. Voters. Nothing else needs to be read into the article. Plain and simple!
Nelly9

hello! martha has been lying! brown supports roe v wade, supports gay civil unions (like obama) and is cool with gay marriage if that what the people of a state want. he won’t send our jobs abroad, cap and trade will.

martha’s gotten big bux from big pharma and big insurance, from the seiu (which brags about its huge illegal immigrant membership) and from moveon.org.
Nelly9

yet another mindblowing moment from the coakley campaign! folks this is better than there are no more terrorists in afghanistan, better than I know about foreign policy because my sister lived abroad, better than catholics shouldn’t work in ER’s – she calls curt schilling a yankees fan!!!
check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmNpcMHwOa8
MAC

I have encountered and voted for someone of Brown’s ilk before and I will never do it again. Boy was I fooled. They come on like they are just like you, and they understand what concerns you and then they promise they are going to get that changed. They go door to door, with their appealing looks and lie about what they really believe in and how partician they really are. Well, this person I voted for has turned out to be nothing more than a slick, lying partician hack who still lies about what this person has accomplished and thinks you are still dumb enough to believe they can fix the problem.
Brown would be the biggest mistake Massachusetts has ever made. I just look at his campaigning, his manner and his phony, I am just like you bullsh*t and know he is a slick, lying and worthless empty shirt. He will not work for Massachusetts- he will work for what is good for him and the Republican party.
And, about that nude spread in Cosmo-I have to wonder how a person who could sell his body for 1,000 instead of working hard in an honest way, will behave as a senator if given the chance.
Marco Esquandolas

MAC: Are you talking about Scott Brown or your old boyfriend?
Bob Loblaw

The Democratic party bosses saw that Martha was in big trouble so they sent in the “win” team to see her through the last week or so of the campaign. One of her “handlers” shoved a journalist to the ground and stood in his way, showing false concern and peppering him with questions about his intent. Martha just walked on, because hey, her handlers must know what they’re doing, right? The sad thing is that to see this you have to go to YouTube. People of Massachussetts, vote for Scott Brown. I won’t say Martha is a fascist, but the people pulling her strings sure seem to be. And she doesn’t seem to mind being “handled” by them.
Ned

MAC: Just because you were hoodwinked by Obama, as your rant indicates, doesn’t mean Brown is disingenuous…
Arturo Soldonato

To Ruth Baker at 12:45: Wow, new bikes and a Cosmo spread from 1982. You’re right, this info is completely relevant so vote for Coakley because obviously this guy is Satan. Actually, despite his ’82 Cosmo spread, Teddy was pulling more chicks as a 20 year (married) senator. Have a great day.
Holly

I just wish one person–ONE–on the Republican side would actually read the Constitution and figure out that Constitutional rights are not reserved for citizens, but are available to “people.” That includes everyone, folks, whether you like to recognize it or not. Brown knows better–he is a lawyer, after all–but seems not to care, and actively makes misleading statements implying the contrary. That is disturbing. (And there is no evidence that we have EVER gotten a single piece of good intel from waterboarding, by the way. Even if we had, is it worth our standing in the world and the certainty that others will feel free to do the same to our soldiers when captured? I don’t think so.)
Captured Soldier

Umm, Holly? We get worse than waterboarding. Trust me.
Holly

By the way, if Coakley doesn’t win, I hope the Dems allow the Republicans to filibuster. The OLD-FASHIONED way, where they have to stand up and read the telephone book or some other nonsense. Let C-Span show them for what they are–obstructionists. And while they’re reading the phone book, the Democrats should call one long press conference where they read the names of all those who have died since the last effort at health care reform because they couldn’t afford the health care they needed–regular blood sugar testing, medication, surgery, chemotherapy, you name it. They should highlight the names of those who paid insurance premiums for YEARS and then, when they got sick, had their coverage yanked.

How can we expect to have a robust recovery if we won’t take care of the human capital upon which our economy depends?
Holly

Captured Soldier, I know you get more than waterboarding. None of it is acceptable.
Captured Soldier

Holly, your platitudes and indignation are meaningless against an enemy that would kill everyone you love in front of you in the name of religion.
Jayrae

Noah, Hilter was the head of the Nazi’s, the National Socialist Party. So either Brown is a conservative or a Hitler. He can’t be both, DUH! BECAUSE SOCIALISTS ARE LEFTISTS.
He also can’t be far right because far right is anarchist. So make sure you know what you are talking about before you open your mouth, otherwise people can come to the conclusion that you are a not to bright “sheeple.” Capito?
Ruth Baker

Somebody is going to be sorry they brought up Mr. Kennedy vs. Brown, as it seems they worked more closely together on some issues than the Repubs. care to admit: Mr. Brown voted for RomneyCare, which was supported by Ted Kennedy.
Also, from what I can tell, Mr. Brown, voted for a MA. version of Cap and Trade.
He voted against Ballot Question 1, which would have eliminated the MA. State sales tax, calling it “reckless”, although, he voted for the measley “tax holiday”.
While he does stand for veterans, and always votes for their financial benefits, it could be as much, self – serving, since he is one. (What are the rules for being a Senator and a veteran? Will he have to go, if called for service?)
Apparently, he has never authored or sponsored a tax – cutting bill; seems to concentrate on anti – immigrant, anti – gay, pro military issues.
And, BTW: Absolutely voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and is against stem cell research; he’s no social moderate, as some are trying to say.
Patrick Joseph Madden

No, Monica – As a general rule, homely and stupid people only win elections against other homely, stupid people.