As I’ve mentioned I don’t give Scott Brown much of a chance in the election, people aren’t as fired up over this as one might think here but a stunt like this has the potential to do it.
Today, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who is overseeing the election but did not respond to a call seeking comment, said certification of the Jan. 19 election by the Governor’s Council would take a while.
“Because it’s a federal election,” spokesman Brian McNiff said. “We’d have to wait 10 days for absentee and military ballots to come in.”
Another source told the Herald that Galvin’s office has said the election won’t be certified until Feb. 20 – well after the president’s address.
Since the U.S. Senate doesn’t meet again in formal session until Jan. 20, Bay State voters will have made their decision before a vote on health-care reform could be held. But Kirk and Galvin’s office said today a victorious Brown would be left in limbo.
In contrast, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) was sworn in at the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 18, 2007, just two days after winning a special election to replace Martin Meehan. In that case, Tsongas made it to Capitol Hill in time to override a presidential veto of the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
I understand the tactic here is to suppress the Brown vote, making the case that it doesn’t matter if you turn out it won’t stop obamacare but I don’t know if state democrats understand exactly what they are doing here.
Let’s say that Brown actually wins and they pull this stunt. There is going to be a sense among the voters of the state that they have been cheated. Except among the hard core win at any cost left even democrats in this Boston Red Sox/sports crazy state would be outraged.
It would be the equivalent of the sneak attack on pearl harbor to the state in terms of effect, it would cause rage. Even worse for elected democrats, it would cause rage in JANUARY of an election year and motivate people to run on the local, state and even federal level with plenty of time to get on ballots and run.
It would motivate them during an election when the president and congress is at its lowest level of popularity, where Governor Patrick (Obama lite) is so unpopular that it will take a major miracle for him to win.
Democrats in this state are soft, they rarely get competition, what do you think will happen if they get real challengers all over the state with an electorate that is angry and motivated? If there was ever a chance for this state to be flipped on a more permanent basis that would be it.
Are State democrats really that stupid? Do they really understand what they might be doing? We know the national party doesn’t give a damn what happens in Massachusetts, it is a state that is losing population and influence it doesn’t matter in the short run. They will sell state democrats in a seconds and there is no Ted Kennedy who knows where the bodies are buried nationally to protect the state from this.
But for state democrats this is all they know, this is their money pit and they are about to risk it. This is a could be a defining moment for the state. The very suggestion that they would do this could be a game changer for this election. Do you as Martha Coakley want to answer a question on this subject?
If they don’t back off of this REALLY fast then all bets are off.
If the GOP has any brains they will get on the ground in Massachusetts at once and start recruiting candidates statewide NOW! This is the type of mistake that takes place once in every few generations, if we don’t take advantage of it then it is our own fault and we deserve exactly what we get.
Update: Jules Crittenden also a Massachusetts resident doesn’t think it would have that effect. He might be right, but it all comes down to what the GOP does with this. We are being given the best shot they will ever get and we’d damn well better take advantage of it.
Update 2: Hillbuzz is with me on this but then again he doesn’t live here.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 