Is Scott Brown Doomed in 2012?
Politico reports:
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who launched the GOP’s midterm insurgency with his special election win last January, just might be a dead man walking.
His polling numbers are still solid. There’s no Democratic war-horse candidate primed to take him on. Brown’s campaign coffers are full, and his celebrity lets him command a national following.
But virtually every result from last week’s elections in Massachusetts offered up grim omens for Brown’s future. His party failed to capture a single high-profile office in the state. Democratic Gov.Deval Patrick, despite early signs of vulnerability, won reelection by a convincing 6-point margin over Charlie Baker, a health insurance executive viewed as a star by state and national Republicans.
Highly touted Republicans lost campaigns for state treasurer and auditor. The National Republican Congressional Committee spent money to contest the open 10th District House seat, but state Rep. Jeff Perry — a personal friend of Brown whom the senator campaigned for — came up short.
Even Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley won reelection by 26 points, not even a year after her defeat by Brown made her look hapless and flat-footed in running to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. (See: Brown pulls off historic upset)
“Obviously, the results show that Massachusetts is, at its core, a Democratic state,” said former Rep. Martin Meehan, now the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. “It has been a reliable Democratic state for many years, particularly when it comes to the congressional delegation.”
The Boston Herald rubbed the Nov. 2 results in Brown’s face less elegantly this week, arguing that Brown should run for president because “if Suzanne Bump” — the Democrats’ weak auditor candidate — “can win a statewide election here, all Republicans are doomed.”
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