WFXT: Brown Has Double Digit Lead

WFXT reports that in a poll of three Massachusetts communities, Brown leads Coakley by double digits.

A poll released a day before the special Senate race shows Senator Scott Brown surging to a double-digit lead over Attorney General Martha Coakley in the race for the open Massachusetts Senate seat.

The shift in favor of the Republican Party is a potential disaster for President Barack Obama and his Democratic political agenda.

Brown has surged to a double-digit lead over Coakley in three Massachusetts communities identified as bellwethers, according to the latest SuffolkUniversitybellwether polling of the race for U.S. Senate.

Gardner, Fitchburg and Peabody all show solid margins for Brown, the state senator running against Coakley. The cities were identified as bellwether communities because in the most recent “like election” – the November 2006 Senate race between the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Republican challenger Kenneth Chase – the results in all three communities were within 1 percentage point of the actual statewide results for each candidate. Additionally, party registration in those cities is similar to the statewide voter makeup.

“Brown has continued to build on the momentum that we saw last week in the SuffolkUniversity statewide poll,” said David Paleologos, director of the SuffolkUniversityPoliticalResearchCenter in Boston. “There’s still a day left, and a number of factors, including weather, can affect turnout, but the latest bellwether polls suggest a solid lead for Brown.”

Obama Advisers: Coakley Is Going To Lose

The man who made “Yes We Can” a nationally known slogan believes that Martha Coakley is going to lose on Tuesday.

Multiple advisers to President Obama have privately told party officials that they believe Democrat Martha Coakley is going to lose Tuesday’s special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy for more than 40 years, several Democratic sources told CNN Sunday.

The sources added that the advisers are still hopeful that Obama’s visit to Massachusetts on Sunday – coupled with a late push by Democratic activists – could help Coakley pull out a narrow victory in an increasingly tight race against Republican state Sen. Scott Brown.

However, the presidential advisers have grown increasingly pessimistic in the last three days about Coakley’s chances after a series of missteps by the candidate, sources said.

But White House spokesman Bill Burton told CNN: “The President is in Massachusetts today because he believes Martha Coakley is the right person for the job and indeed will be the next senator from Massachusetts.”

It’s sure looking like Scott Brown is poised to become our next Senator.

Cook Political Report: Brown Favored

With each new poll comes more great news for Scott Brown. Now, the Cook Political Report has revised the Massachusetts Senate Special Election from “toss-up” to leaning in favor of Scott Brown.

Hours before President Barack Obama’s appearance with the Democratic candidate in the Massachusetts Senate race, political handicapper Charlie Cook sent an unusual weekend update to his Cook Political Report subscribers saying that Scott Brown, the Republican, is now a slight favorite.

Cook added in his Sunday afternoon bulletin that the race can still go either way.

“This past Thursday, Jan. 14, The Cook Political Report moved the open Massachusetts Senate seat rating from lean Democrat to toss-up, having moved it from solid Democrat to lean Democratic on Jan. 7,” Cook wrote. “We continue to see this race as very much of a toss-up, with Republican state Sen. Scott Brown holding onto a very narrow, single-digit lead over Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley.

“Given the vagaries of voter turnout, particularly in lower participation level special elections, this race could still go either way, but we put a finger on the scale for Brown. Last-minute Democratic attacks on Brown have driven his negatives up some and slightly diminished the incredible intensity of support that Brown enjoyed, but it looks more likely than not to hold.”

Brown Responds To Obama

Today, President Barack Obama mocked Scott Brown references to his personal truck at the rally for Martha Coakley, saying that “everybody can buy a truck.”

Scott Brown responded to Obama’s mockery with the following statement:

Mr. President, unfortunately in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck. My goal is to change that by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money.

Maybe under Obama’s economic plan, everybody is getting a truck…

Can Obama Save Coakley?

How scared are the Democrats of Scott Brown? President Barack Obama is in town today, that’s how scared they are.

President Barack Obama was making a last-ditch attempt Sunday to save a Democratic-held Senate seat in Massachusetts – and an important 60th vote for his health care plan – as the top Senate Republican called the shockingly close race a verdict against the bill no matter who wins.

“This is, in effect, a referendum on the national health care bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “It is perfectly clear if it’s unpopular in Massachusetts, it’s unpopular everywhere. The American people don’t want us to pass this bill.”

The legislation has dominated the tighter-than-expected race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown. She supports the bill. He doesn’t and has said he would vote against it, robbing Democrats of the 60-vote majority Obama has been relying on to pass much of his agenda and thwart Republican filibusters.

With so much on the line, Obama was heading to Boston to campaign with Coakley at Northeastern University in the midst of final negotiations over the sweeping health care plan and the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. His visit underscored the perilous situation facing Democrats in Massachusetts.

Despite the state’s long Democratic tradition, Coakley and Brown are in a dead heat heading into Tuesday’s special election to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy. Coakley, the state’s attorney general, had led Brown, a state senator, by double-digits in polls after the early December primaries.

But the race narrowed considerably over the past week as Brown’s populist message resonated with an angry and resentful electorate in an antiestablishment environment. He’s energized Republicans as well as attracted disillusioned Democrats and independents worried about taxes, spending, government expansion and health care under Obama. In a race this tight, turnout will be the key.

With the personal visit, Obama is seeking to fire up rank-and-file Democrats who outnumber Republicans in this state but who are dispirited just one year after he took office. Turnout is notoriously low in special elections, and Democrats need their loyalists – particularly blue-collar and minority voters who might not be motivated – to show up at the polls.

I love watching the panic state the Democrats are in. It makes me feel warm and cozy on the inside, it really does. I doubt Obama has any ability to save Coakley from an embarrassing defeat at this point. Obama coming to Massachusetts hurts both of them.