Brown Promises His Upset Will Be The First Of Many
- Jan 20, 2010, 3:40 AM
- 16 Comments
Scott Brown, flanked by his family, speaks in Boston after winning the special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. (AP)
BOSTON — In his victory speech Tuesday night, the new senator-elect from Massachusetts said something that would sound very unusual coming from most winning politicians in this liberal state.
Scott Brown told his supporters at the Park Plaza Hotel that Democrats — which he called “the machine” — should be worried.
“For them, it’s just the beginning of an election year filled with many, many surprises, I can tell you that,” he said to applause. “They will be challenged again and again across this great land, and when there’s trouble in Massachusetts, rest assured there’s trouble everywhere, and they know it.”
In a victory that has changed the political landscape in the state and in Washington, Brown became the first Republican to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate since 1979. He pulled one of the biggest upsets in state history by beating his Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley, 52 percent to 47 percent.
One powerful congressional Democrat said Tuesday night that Brown’s election signals an end to the Democrats’ current proposal to expand health care coverage. In a written statement, Congressman Barney Frank said “the majority in Congress must make no effort to bypass the election results.”
Had Coakley won, Frank said he believes the House and Senate could have worked out a compromise. But, he said, “respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened.”
At Brown’s victory celebration, the crowd chanted “forty-one,” in reference to Brown’s promise to be the 41st vote Republicans need to stop the Democrats from passing their health care plan.
Coakley won in western Massachusetts, where she grew up, and in large cities throughout the state. Brown won most small towns elsewhere and the suburbs, including Braintree, where Susan Coyne cast her vote for him.
“I don’t want the health care bill to go through the way it’s currently set up,” Coyne said. “I have great benefits. I’m afraid that my own benefits will suffer. I just think that it could take care of the elderly a little bit better than it’s going to.”
Others, like Cate Naughton, also of Braintree, just wanted someone new. “I voted for Scott Brown just for a change in Massachusetts,” she said.
Voters were also turned off by tone of the Democrats’ campaign. That’s what prompted Dan Muse to vote for Brown in Peabody. “I don’t like the negative campaign that she was running,” he said. “She was very negative about everything.”
Brown celebrates with supporters after the win. (AP)
Brown said he spoke Tuesday night to President Obama, who congratulated him. The president told Brown he looked forward to working with him on economic issues.
Another Republican who hopes to capitalize this year on dissatisfaction with the Democrats’ management of the economy, Republican candidate for governor Charlie Baker, laid out why he thinks Brown won. “I think because Scott was talking about spending, jobs, the budget, and that’s what the people of Massachusetts wanted their candidates to talk about,” Baker said.
Brown said the first thing he wants to work on is to control spending.
There’s been speculation about how quickly Brown will be certified as senator. On Tuesday night, he said he would not be going to Washington the next day.
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