MA-Sen: Final Days Bring Tight Polls, Flurry of Activityby Steve Singiser
Sat Jan 16, 2010 at 01:16:03 PM PST
<snip>
As the special election in Massachusetts now is into its final weekend, there is a flurry of activity as the GOP tries to capitalize on its improbable run to parity in this contest, and the Democrats try to pull what was once an inevitable victory out of the fire. What follows is a brief summary of the goings-on, as the countdown to Election Day is down to just three days to go:
* As was reported last night in the polling Wrap-Up, the crew at American Research Group released a poll Friday evening which gave Republican Scott Brown a narrow edge in the race (48-45) over Democrat Martha Coakley. A lot of people on the Dem side have tried to qualify this poll by pointing out ARG's less than sterling reputation among their colleagues. However, it is worth noting that at least one person who claims knowledge of Coakley's internals claims that she is getting very similar numbers.
* As the weekend kicks off, it appears as if Coakley might have found an opening with which to raise doubts about Brown in the final days. It comes from the revelation that the Brown campaign, unlike the Coakley campaign, does not provide health insurance for its campaign employees. Coakley's team quickly turned this into a larger narrative, arguing that "If he won’t stand up for the people he employs, how could we ever trust him to stand up for us?"
* The Massachusetts Democratic Party is also amping up the campaign rhetoric, with an eleventh hour mailer that hits Brown hard. The mailer takes to task a failed Brown-sponsored amendment in the legislature exempting medical personnel from informing rape victims about the availability of the morning-after pill. The brutal headline of the mailer: "1,736 Women Were Raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown Wants Hospitals To Turn Them All Away." The Brown campaign, not surprisingly, is disputing the mailer, arguing that after the amendment failed to pass, Brown voted in favor of emergency contraception.
* As announced yesterday, President Obama is heading north to stump for Coakley on Sunday. He will be speaking at Northeastern University at 3 PM tomorrow. The event is open to the public. Meanwhile, Coakley is also getting another show of support from another heavy hitter in the Democratic Party: President Bill Clinton. Clinton cut a robocall for Coakley which stated, in part:
The Republicans are spending millions of dollars to win Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat and they’re telling you that they’ve got a better economic plan, when all they want is to bring back President Bush’s economic policies. They’re telling you they’ve got a health care plan, when all they want is to leave the health insurance companies in control of America’s health care and bankrupt the country.
So please, get out and vote for Martha Coakley on Tuesday Jan 19.
This is the second major attempt by President Clinton to assist the Coakley campaign in as many days, having made an in-state appearance with Coakley, as well.
* For an interesting analytical take on how this election has come to this point, a lot of folks are talking about a column in this morning's Boston Globe by columnist Adrian Walker.
* Finally, Cillizza hits on the whole Curt Schilling thing (just the kind of thing that sucks away oxygen when you least expect it), while also hitting on an interesting GOP strategy point that, if true, is pretty keen. Cillizza claims that the GOP had an early internal poll that showed Brown reasonably close (13 points) and sat on it. The intuitive thing, of course, would have been to blast it to everyone as a sign of your candidate's viability. Instead, he claims, they sat on it in the hopes that the other side would remain in a false sense of security.
<snip>
Link to post:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/15/825552/-MA-Sen:-Final-Days-Bring-Tight-Polls,-Flurry-of-Activity:shrug:
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
