BOSTON – In a contest with major national implications, Massachusetts voters chose a successor to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Tuesday in a down-to-the-wire election that became a referendum on President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul and his first year in office.
A loss — or even a narrow victory — by once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley to insurgent Republican Scott Brown in this Democratic stronghold could signal big political problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.
More immediately at stake was a critical 60th vote for Democrats to save their health care legislation and the rest of Obama's agenda. A 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate could allow the GOP to block the president's priorities with filibusters.
The election transformed reliably Democratic Massachusetts into a battleground state. One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama's swearing-in, it played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, industry bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.
Days before the vote, White House advisers and other Democrats in Washington began making excuses for they called a poorly run campaign on Coakley's part. Obama flew to Boston for last-minute personal campaigning on Sunday.
Wall Street watched closely. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 116 points, and analysts attributed the increase to hopes the election would make it harder for Obama to make his changes to health care. That eased investor concerns that profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer.
Across Massachusetts, voters who had been bombarded with phone calls and dizzied with nonstop campaign commercials for Coakley and Brown gave a fitting turnout despite intermittent snow and rain statewide.
Boston reported twice the primary turnout among early voters, while in western Massachusetts, one in five registered voters in Longmeadow had shown up by 11 a.m.
Secretary of State William Galvin predicted turnout ranging from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, 40 percent to 55 percent of registered voters. The Dec. 8 primary had a scant turnout of about 20 percent.
As polls opened, Brown drove up to his polling place in Wrentham in the green pickup truck that came to symbolize his upstart, workmanlike campaign that in the past week pulled him into a surprise dead heat in polls.
"It would make everybody the 41st senator, and it would bring fairness and discussion back to the equation," the state senator said of a potential victory. He spent the rest of the day out of public view, crafting evening rally remarks that had the potential to be an early State of the Union speech for the national Republican Party.
Coakley, stunned to see a double-digit lead evaporate in recent weeks, counted on labor unions and reawakened Democrats to turn out on her behalf and preserve a seat Kennedy and his brother, President John F. Kennedy, held for over 50 years. The senator died in August of brain cancer.
"We're paying attention to the ground game," Coakley, the state's attorney general, said casting her vote in suburban Medford. "Every game has its own dynamics."

of the 8 doctors I've seen in the last couple of weeks, four of em have said that if this healthcare bill passes that they will retire (ALL of em oppose it)

one doctor (an ethnic Indian) says that if it passes he believes that at least 30% of all the doctors in America will retire

the Democrats don't seem to be listening. There is a LOT of opposition to this healthcare bill

and they are losing the independents and moderates in droves

Quiet,

I asked my doc and he was for it. My father's doctor is for it too.

yeah know i'm not political but im getting tired of every tv add to talk bout it an getting tired of all the un wanted phone calls so glad i don't vote lol

Looks like the republicans are going to win.

This is what the Dems are saying:

Begin quote:

A top Senate Democrat for the first time Tuesday acknowledged that the party is prepared to deal with health care reform by using a controversial legislative tactic known as the "nuclear option" if Republican Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts Senate election.


A top Senate Democrat for the first time Tuesday acknowledged that the party is prepared to deal with health care reform by using a controversial legislative tactic known as the "nuclear option" if Republican Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts Senate election.

Calling the state's special election "an uphill battle to put it mildly," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said "there are options to still pursue health care" should Democrat Martha Coakley lose to Brown.

Congressional Democrats have been discussing several options, since a Brown win would break the party's 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority at a critical time for health care reform. Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, described a combination of tactics to get what his party wants out of health care reform.

First, he said the House could simply approve the Senate bill, sending it straight to President Obama's desk.

Then, Durbin said, the Senate could make changes to the bill by using the nuclear option, known formally as "reconciliation," a tactic that would allow Democrats to adjust parts of health care reform with just a 51-vote majority.

"We could go to something called 'reconciliation', which is in the weeds procedurally, but would allow us to modify that health care bill by a different process that doesn't require 60 votes, only a majority," Durbin said. "So that is one possibility there."

Though House Democrats have major misgivings about the Senate version, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday suggested they'd be willing to consider approving the Senate bill intact, if the alternative is no bill at all. A majority of Democrats in that chamber are opposed to many provisions in the Senate-passed bill, including the controversial tax on high-cost insurance plans which the unions are vehemently against.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also expressed confidence Tuesday.

"We will have a reform bill," she said.

End Quote:

I have the feeling that if they pursue the "nucular option" and ram it down their throats like that

they will proly alienate enough voters to lose the majority in the 2010 elections

and prolly cost Obama a second term

1 switched sides because of the healthcare, 1 had to be bribed or given something special for his vote, they are trying to shut out the Republicans (which is shutting out the voters that voted for them)...does any one else see all of this as a red flag and a problem?

My sister is disabled and on medicare....they don't pay for the meds she really needs. They want to get on her husband insurance, but they won't accept her because of the disability.

I know something needs to be done....but not this. and I don't mean get it signed, as is, and then tweak it later on.


The doctors in the group with my doctor don't want it. My sister's doctor's group doesn't want it...

Why doesn't your sister change prescription plans then, Rose?

none of them offer it through her government insurance.

Medicare has different prescription plans now. Bush started that. There's a whole page to pick from. My Dad does that.

with all due respect winx...you can't compare your father to my sister

They flat out won't pay for what she needs and it's too expensive to pay out of pocket. Even with her doctors writing on her behalf...that doesn't matter. My sister has been battling medicare for sometime now.

My sister used to be on a morphine drip and now she takes the meds they give 3rd degree burn victims and she is still having problems and in pain

Trust me....the entire family have looked into every option there is for her

Kim I thought Mass Health does prescription plan i know i think im getting mine from there I'm also on disability for personal reason i have medicare an mass health..

they don't want to pay for the very expensive meds for her. They seem to think they want her to be treated but at minimal cost

my brother in laws insurance through his job would pay for those meds, but they want cover her because of pre-existing.

Keep in mind that my sister is an extreme case.

I wasn't comparing my father with your sister. Not even close. I was saying that's how I know about it. My Dad has shown me the list of prescription plans that Medicare offers to Medicare people. Disabled people get that list too. I don't understand why Medicare is not allowing your sister to do it. Btw, before the prescription plan, my Dad got his meds from Canada. My father has a medical condition.

Rose, you know that my heart goes out to your sister.

that sucks they should.. then again me i don't care to much for the stuff that goes on this state guess that why i'm a no political person i could care less lol... ok me off to sleep at 8pm long day at dr's the snow an rain just miserable today.. oh kim see anything lately lol

I used my sister as an example of why there needs to be reforms....but not what is in this healthcare plan

For the record...It was a nighmare to even get her declared as disabled. They had to hire a lawyer to fight them for it

Latest results 52% Brown 47% Coakley (Kennedy 1%)

Just how is this one senator seat changes so much? I thought the dems are still majority in the House.

They are but Brown will be the 41st vote.
The senate wont have the 60 needed to pass a bill.

AP projects Brown wins.

This should be interesting with what will happen in the senate now.