1-13-10 Politics- Top Story- Brown v Coakley- ObamaCare showdown in Massachusetts election

 Is it time for Democrats to start panicking?

[1] http://campaigndiaries.com/2010/01/12/democrats-dial-up-volume-in-massachussetts-special/

 A new [2] Rasmussen poll finds Martha Coakley leading by only 2% (49% to 47%). This is the first time we can consider trendlines (Rasmussen is the first pollster to release a second poll, and this is where things get scary for Democrats: Coakley led by 9% 10 days ago, so all the momentum is definitely on Scott Brown’s side. Yet more confirmation that the Attorney General is caught in a downward spiral comes from [3] Marc Ambinder’s Twitter account: “FWIW, internal Democratic tracking in MA last week had Coakley up 15. Today, she’s up by five.” Suddenly, PPP has a lot of company - and it’s The Boston Globe that’s looking isolated.

[4] Rasmussen: Mass. Race a Dead Heat

[5] http://www.thefoxnation.com/massachusett-senate-race/2010/01/12/rasmussen-mass-race-dead-heat

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley attracting 49% of the vote while her Republican rival, state Senator Scott Brown, picks up 47%.
 
Three percent (3%) say they’ll vote for independent candidate Joe Kennedy, and two percent (2%) are undecided. The independent is no relation to the late Edward M. Kennedy, whose Senate seat the candidates are battling to fill in next Tuesday’s election.

Scott Brown to CNN’s Gergen: ‘It’s Not the Kennedys’ Seat’

[6] http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/01/12/its-not-kennedys-seat-its-not-democrats-seat-its-peoples-seat#ixzz0cVsiu3Xp
The death of Ted Kennedy hit the liberal media particularly hard. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell caught the mood of the nation’s pundits when she said the “[7] heavens were weeping” during Kennedy’s funeral. Now that Kennedy is dead, some pundits feel as if Democrats are entitled to the seat he left vacant.

CNN senior political analyst David Gergen had to be reminded of this fact Monday as he moderated a debate between the two candidates for Massachusetts’s open Senate seat. He asked Republican candidate Scott Brown whether he’d be willing to “sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat and [say] I’m going to be the person who’s going to block it [liberal health care policy] for another 15 years.”

But Brown, refusing to take for granted Gergen’s blatantly left-wing premises, responded instead: “Well, with all due respect it’s not the Kennedys’ seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat.” (video and transcript below the fold - h/t [8] Kerry Picket)

[9] Lobbyists Hosting Martha Coakley’s Fundraiser, Showing Who’s For Health Care ‘Reform’

[10] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/lobbyists-hosting-martha-_n_421114.html

Washington Examiner:

With Democrat Martha Coakley in trouble in the Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, Democrats could lose vote No. 60 for President Obama’s health-care bill. In response, an army of lobbyists for drug companies, health insurance companies, and hospitals has teamed up to throw a high-dollar Capitol Hill fundraiser for Coakley next Tuesday night.

[11] http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Coakley-in-trouble-Pharma-and-HMO-lobbyists-to-the-rescue-81067542.html