Just returned from visiting Scott Brown’s campaign events in Plymouth and was stunned by the size of the crowd. At the entrance to the Shops at Five shopping center there, hundreds (500? More?) of rabid Scott Brown fans waved signs, listened to a brief speech and jostled about for autographs (!!). Cars passing by on busy Long Pond Road were honking and otherwise signaling their approval.
One block away, a few dozen Coakley supporters were spread out on all four corners of the intersection leading to Home Depot and the infamous Plymouth House of Corrections (where a lot of their bra $tuffing friends ought to go). They looked like they’d rather be somewhere else. Didn’t see anyone honk or wave and they took off long before Brown’s event was over.
At the Brown event, the energy and enthusiasm was unlike anything I’ve seen for a Republican in Massachusetts (or even a Democrat in recent years). Brown has successfully tapped into a collective sense of revulsion.
But there’s an added element: we’ve seen one of our local state reps suddenly transformed into a major national political figure, a development that must surprise even Brown himself.
Beltway pundits and Democratic operatives are busy trying to portray this as a screw-up by Coakley, but the truth is that Brown’s potential victory on Tuesday will the result of his hard work, effective campaign organization (another rarity for Mass Republicans!) and incredibly dedicated supporters.
— Here’s a surprise: the Cape Cod Timeshas endorsed Scott Brown. Coming from a fairly hard core lefty newsroom, that was not expected. But Cape Wind may have been the deciding factor: Brown is opposed, Coakley supports.
The Times has adamantly opposed Cape Wind for years.
— Watch for: can we have our state back please? I realize the Senate race has national implications, but it feels like we’ve been hijacked by outside interests who’ve poured in at the last minute. I’ll have more to say about this soon.
Will Obama’s Sunday Bay State visit help or hurt Martha Coakley’s sagging excuse for a campaign? And why would he place the election ahead of helping Haiti recover?
— Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is warning Massachusetts-based listeners to be on the lookout for whatever last-minute hit piece The Globies may be cooking up as we speak. We’ve been warning about a Sunday Smear for days here at this site.
Limbaugh speculates that Obama may use the Sunday Smear itself in his campaigning for Coakley later that day. Whatever the hit may contain, count on The Globies sharing it with the White House ahead of time so that their candidate is prepared to exploit the story.
Howie Carr, a radio personality on WRKO Radio, received two verbal threats on his cell phone on Jan. 6 at 4 p.m. The first caller threatened to kill Carr with an “ice pick stuck into his ear,” and the second that he, as well as the woman who answered the phone for him while he was on-air, would be killed.
Carr told police he has no idea who could be threatening him, but has given out his cell phone number to numerous people. Police are investigating the phone numbers on which the calls to the cell phone were made.
— Luckily, the Dem hit piece (since pulled) that dared to use the World Trade Center towers has been preserved on YouTube.
— Why do Dems believe Vicki Kennedy has the ability to help Coakley? Why did Kennedy steal Scott Brown’s debate line? Time to put down the crack pipe?
In a Senate campaign that has re-written the textbook on political self-destruction, Democrats have blown it yet again. An anti-Brown smear piece was apparently created by someone who was unaware of what occurred on September 11, 2001. Red-faced Dems have since pulled the spot.
A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee uses an unlikely symbol of Wall Street greed: the World Trade Center.
The image in the attack on Scott Brown for his alleged closeness to Wall Street pictures the Trade Center and the destroyed Marriott Hotel on its western side.
A National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman, Brian Walsh, attacked its use.
“Using the image of a site where over 2,700 Americans died in a terrorist attack to distort Scott Brown’s position on regulating Wall Street is both distasteful and disrespectful. Martha Coakley should immediately renounce this ad and call for it to be removed from the airwaves,” he said.
Confirming shifting momentum in the Massachusetts Senate race, a just-released WHDH-7 / Suffolk University survey has Republican State Senator Scott Brown four points ahead of embattled / surprisingly thuggish Attorney General Martha Coakley.
It’s the first poll to show Brown with a decent lead over Coakley, though others have shown him ahead by as much as a single point.
The data is fascinating: while Obama remains somewhat popular, Deval Patrick and Sarah Palin are relatively unpopular and Mitt Romney still polls surprisingly well. Despite Coakley’s barrage of negative ads, Scott Brown’s net favorability rating is exceptionally high. It’s fair to ask whether her hit pieces have actually backfired.
Those polled also believe Brown won the debates.
Also to be reported in Friday’s Boston Herald, Coakley’s official Kennedy nod has apparently chased support away as what’s left of the family becomes increasingly disliked here in the Bay State.
Because, of course, it’s all a right-wing plot to stop Coakley’s “quiet diligence“…
Just look at that contrived excuse for a smile.
Of course, the real Globie manure will hit over the weekend as whatever sleazy last-minute hit pieces they’ve cooked up on Brown hit Sunday’s front page. Bet on it.
Now, video of a second violent dust-up has emerged, this time outside the DC restaurant where Coakley was attending a fundraiser hosted by piggish K Street lobbyists. This time, it was a Weekly Standard reporter who was on the receiving end of a violent outburst from someone in Coakley’s entourage. John McCormack says he was “pushed into a railing” by “someone with the Coakley campaign”.
Here’s the best clip, though far from conclusive, to emerge so far:
After taking a question from a CNN reporter on the street outside the restaurant, I asked her:
TWS: Attorney General Coakley, you said last night that there are no terrorists in Afghanistan–that they’re all in Yemen and Pakistan. Do you stand by that remark?
COAKLEY: I’m sorry, did someone else have a question?
GRIFF JENKINS, Fox News: I did. Why are you in Washington tonight?
COAKLEY: We planned an event after the primary that would be a unity event in Washington. We’re also in the middle of a very intense campaign [...]
After Coakley finished her answer, she began walking away from the restaurant, and I walked behind her asking why health care industry lobbyists were supporting her at the fundraiser. She didn’t reply.
As I walked down the street, a man who appeared to be associated with the Coakley campaign pushed me into a freestanding metal railing. I ended up on the sidewalk. I was fine. He helped me up from the ground, but kept pushing up against me, blocking my path toward Coakley down the street.
He asked if I was with the media, and I told him I work for THE WEEKLY STANDARD. When I asked him who he worked for he replied, “I work for me.” He demanded to see my credentials, and even though it was a public street, I showed them to him.
UPDATE: This story appears to have legs after all. The Boston Heraldhas a story in today’s edition, while an AP photographer appears to have caught some portion of the altercation:
As he continued to walk down the street, he said a man who appeared to be associated with Coakley’s campaign pushed him into a freestanding metal rail.
“I ended up on the sidewalk. I was fine. He helped me up from the ground, but kept pushing up against me, blocking my path toward Coakley down the street,” he wrote.
McCormack said the man asked him whether he was with the media and he responded he works for the Weekly Standard.
His online entry includes a YouTube video of the incident, in which you can hear a man ask McCormack if he’s OK after he fell. The reporter then tangles with the same man, showing him a press credential as he tries to make his way around him.
McCormack wrote he eventually caught up to Coakley, who declined to answer his question.
He said Coakley staffers informed him they don’t know who pushed him. In an updated blog post, McCormack writes he believes he was pushed by Michael Meehan, president of Blue Line Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C. The Associated Press also identifies the man as Meehan, based on photos and videotape of the incident.
A Coakley spokeswoman could not provide an immediate response to a Herald inquiry about McCormack’s account. Meehan did not immediately return an phone message or e-mail.
A message left for McCormack was not immediately returned.
BOSTON—A reporter trying to question Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley was involved in a scuffle with one of her aides.
John McCormack of the Weekly Standard fell Tuesday night as he tried to speak with the Democrat while simultaneously videotaping her and trying to pass a metal grate on a Washington sidewalk.
Photos and video of the incident show Coakley aide Michael Meehan trying to help McCormack up. A scuffle broke out as Meehan tried to block McCormack and determine if he was an operative of a rival campaign.
Coakley is seen ignoring McCormack. The trip prompted criticism, since Coakley was in Washington seeking money from lobbyists while polls show a tightening race.
A just-released Rasmussen Poll shows the US Senate special election to be a horse race, a virtual tie. As opposed the last week’s survey from the same outfit showing Democrat Martha Coakley nine points ahead, this one has that lead trimmed to just two: a statistical dead heat.
One key: this one asked about huckster “Joe Kennedy” by name, while the previous survey threw him into “some other candidate” territory. It appears Kennedy really does take votes from Coakley when his name is included:
The Massachusetts’ special U.S. Senate election has gotten tighter, but the general dynamics remain the same.
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.
Coakley is supported by 77% of Democrats while Brown picks up the vote from 88% of Republicans. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, Brown leads 71% to 23%. To be clear, this lead is among unaffiliated voters who are likely to participate in the special election.
A week ago, the overall results showed Coakley leading by a 50% to 41% margin. The closeness of the race in heavily Democratic Massachusetts has drawn increasing national interest, and Brown made it clear in the final candidate debate last night that a vote for him is a vote to stop the national health care plan Democrats are pushing in Congress.
In addition, Michelle Malkin has the story on ringers who were paid to wave signs for Coakley outside last night’s debate. One admits he’s actually a Brown supporter!
Finally, in this clip also from Fleming & Hayes, Coakley’s arrival is met with shouts of “Go, Scott, Go!”, while Brown supporters are suddenly pushed aside by thugs:
A few days ago, Scott Brown was a local political figure known to few outside of the Bay State. Today, he’s been transformed into a national superstar, largely on the basis of yesterday’s massive Internet Money Bomb haul ($1,300,000!) and most importantly, his declaration that “it’s the people’s seat.”
Drudge has given it a red headline, talk radio is all over it, as is the buzz on the street. Scott, you’ve got a hit single.
“Are you willing, under those circumstances, to say I’m gonna be the person, I’m gonna sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat, and I’m gonna be the person that’s gonna block it for another 15 years,” Gergen asks.
Brown responds: “Well, with all due respect, it’s not the Kennedys’ seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat…”
Suddenly, our own struggle to transform Massachusetts from a corrupt, national political embarrassment to a center of reform has resonated nationwide. “It’s the people’s seat” as a search already turns up 5000 responses, with the count growing by the minute.
I’m hearing from people outside Massachusetts who ask, “do you really think he can win?”
My answer: YES. Coakley has done everything imaginable to blow this campaign, especially all but shutting down her operation after the primary. She’s made no effort to distance herself from the corrupt establishment that feels it should rule by decree.
By contrast, Brown has shown what a real Republican campaign can look like in Massachusetts: it’s well-organized, the spots are clever, the candidate well-versed. Not since Mitt Romney’s gubernatorial run have we seen this kind of effort in the Bay State.
Brown CAN win this race, but it’s going to be an ugly week as Coakley’s establishment cronies throw everything but the kitchen sink at him. Regardless of the outcome next Tuesday, his political future has never been brighter.
It’s a day of duel fundraising marathons as the Money Bomb campaign for Scott Brown races toward meeting its goal many hours earlier than expected. At the same time, MoveOn.org is apparently raising money for Martha Coakley.
As of 12:45pm, the Brown Money Bomb has already generated $273,487 against a midnight target of $500,000. Clearly, the bar wasn’t set high enough.
2pm: $331,137.50
2:11pm: $359,166.83
2:32pm: $403,429.12
2:45pm: $430,713.17
3:30pm: $478,023.82
3:35pm: $485,781.70
3:55pm: $493,754.84
4:00pm: $501,750.94 — TARGET EXCEEDED
4:30pm: $525,529.12 – TARGET RAISED TO $750,000
4:46pm: $618,518.11
5:11pm: $658,522.43
6pm: $750,018.81 — SECOND TARGET EXCEEDED – NEW GOAL: $1,000,000
