Where is the national GOP in the Massachusetts special election?
(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Normally, when a special election occurs to fill a seat in Congress or especially the Senate, the national parties throw resources and attention onto the race. The lack of competition for attention allows the national parties to transform the elections into national referendums of sorts, and the party out of power usually has an opportunity to exploit the lower turnout to steal a march on the governing party. So why have the national GOP and party leaders gone AWOL in Massachusetts, where Scott Brown will battle Martha Coakley for Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate?
posted by BP News Bureau | 12:12 PM
1 Comments:
With All Due Respect, Guys, It's Massachusetts
(National Review Online) - I have to respectfully dissent a bit from Ed Morrissey when he declares that "national GOP and party leaders gone AWOL in Massachusetts, where Scott Brown will battle Martha Coakley for Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate."
Should Michael Steele and national GOP leaders who can spare the time get up there and do a fundraising event or rally or two for Brown? Absolutely.
But to illustrate how tough the odds are for Brown, let's pretend that every registered Republican in the state, as of 2008, shows up and votes for him. And let us pretend that the independents split evenly, and that only one third of the state's Democrats show up and vote for Coakley.
Under that scenario, Coakley still wins by about 1,045 votes. That's how steep an uphill battle Brown faces in this race. I'm sure there are a lot of Democrats in Massachusetts who don't like the health care bill. I'm sure there are a lot of fired-up Republicans, and maybe Brown will even win independents. But there are just so many more Democrats in this state than Republicans that it will take a not-so-small miracle for Brown to eke out a victory. Everybody on the right ought to be pulling for a Brown upset, and doing what they can, but there's not much point in spending a lot of resources here when there will be a ton of competitive battlefields in the coming year.
Post a Comment
<< Home