Mass. Senate Poll Shows Shift Toward GOP Candidate

A new poll in the Massachusetts Senate special election shows a tectonic shift in favor of the Republican Party and an impending disaster for President Barack Obama and his Democratic political agenda in Tuesday's election.

A Suffolk University survey released late Thursday showed Republican Scott Brown with 50 percent of the vote in the race to succeed the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Democrat Martha Coakley had 46 percent. That made the race a statistical tie, since it was within the poll's 4.4 percentage point margin of error. But the findings were far different from a 15-point lead the Massachusetts attorney general enjoyed in a Boston Globe survey released over the weekend.

They also signaled a possible death knell for the 60-vote Democratic supermajority the president has been relying to pass his health care overhaul and the rest of his legislative agenda.