Back when I went to college in far leftist, er, western, fringes of the Bay State, I had occasion to talk to many a native about the state’s senior Senator. It took me a while to understand his appeal, much of it having to do with his name. But, that wasn’t all. Ted Kennedy had, by all accounts a crackerjack constituent service operations and a staff considered the smartest on the “left side” of the Hill. Plus, despite his upbringing, he had the ability to relate to the urban ethnic voters in his jurisdiction. And he loved Fenway Park and the Red Sox.
Once when taking a cab from the bus station to Logan Airport, I asked the driver what he thought about his state’s senator, “Well,” this middle-aged man began, “he’s John’s brother.” He hesitated before praising the man dubbed the “black sheep” of his family, but ended up saying that while he lacked his older brother’s charisma, he did look out for the state. The Kennedy name will always have a certain magic in Massachusetts, particularly among the older Irish voters who know what it’s like to be excluded from the political mainstream. I think that’s one reason Martha Coakley has been polling about even with older voters (while running behind Brown among younger voters), a constituency which nationwide is moving away from her party, largely based on opposition to the health care overhaul.
So,it does seems the endorsement of the Kennedy family will help Martha Coakley in tomorrow’s election. Will then some of the currently wavering voters decide in the voting booth to vote for her to honor that celebrated family? Perhaps. And enough may do that to make up for the recent swing in the polls away from the Democratic nominee.
But, that’s not the only Kennedy factor at play in tomorrow’s race. A third party candidate on the ballot has almost the same name as the Kennedy family patriarch, though this Joe Kennedy calls himself the Tea Party candidate. Given his affiliation with the anti-big government tea parties, this affiliation would normally help the Democrats by taking away votes from the GOP whose candidate is running against the Democrats’ big government initiatives.
But, some older voters, seeing the name Kennedy may vote for this libertarian guy for sentimental sake. According to the New York Times, Bay State Democrats have voiced this concern, fearing “that some uninformed voters might confuse him for a member of the better-known, well-loved Kennedy clan, which he is not.”
On the end, he’ll probably draw votes from both sides, though I would daresay that some people currently intending to vote for him on the tax, spend and health care issue, may change their mind at the last minute and vote for Brown realizing that he could actually pull this off.
So… some people in MA are still living in the 1870s? Or at least the 1920s?
Daniel, have been following this and the polls very closely. The Kennedy on the ticket, a libertarian is not polling all that well. He would be lucky to pick up 2% of the vote.
Amongst comments that I have seen it was the fact that Ted was more down to earth that gave him a lot of popularity. Being a Red Sox fan and loving Fenway park certainly made a difference. There are plenty of anecdotal stories of how Ted greeted his constituents as well.
On the other hand many Demoncrats, in fact 1:5 of them intend voting for Brown, including members of the SEIU chapter 509. Then there are the members of the police forces including the Cambridge Police (of Henry Gates fame) who are backing Brown.
The people backing Brown are doing so for a variety of reasons and chief among them is “the people’s seat”. It is the slogan that has caused a bit of a fire. Then there are people totally turned off by the negative campaign run by Coakley, and that includes her many, many gaffes. The woman is an elitist. She sneered at the idea of meeting and greeting people at Fenway Park. Brown has shown himself to be a man of the people in that respect. People are angry over the Abominable care. People are angry over Coakley’s legal record: the Fells Acres case which did not directly involve Coakley but she stopped an innocent man being given parole. Then there is the Winfield case where the perpetrator molested a 2 year old using a hot curling iron and Coakley refused to prosecute the case – his father was one of her campaign donors. Money speaks – justice can wait for Coakley. Then there was the Louise Woodward case – the English nanny accused of killing a baby by shaking him. In that case she was innocent since the baby had a healing head wound (a fact not understood by the jury) that meant that Louise did not kill him.
The elitism of Coakley definitely rankles where ordinary people are concerned. Also she has lost many of the elderly (and they have voted via absentee votes) because her office sent out letters threatening their garden clubs with imprisonment and fines if they did not file financial reports. This one is a storm in a teacup and really these clubs should be exempted from the particular legislative requirements. They would not earn enough income from the public in the first place.
However, we do not know what other dirty tricks will be pulled by ACORN and dead voters.
ILC, there was still discrimination against the Irish up until and just after WWII.
OK, so… some people in MA are still living in 1946? 😉
Some politicians just know how to connect to the people and the voters respond to that. Ted Kennedy had that ability and it made his seat safe for him to push more liberal legislation than maybe what all of his supporters would like but they trusted him. Its one of those once in a generation kind of qualities and we really haven’t seen a lot of politicians do that anymore. It might be because of the change in how campaigns are run anymore, they are becoming increasingly nationalized. You have out of state groups and money going into these races and I think creates disconnects that have hurt more than most.