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Seat now empty, race heats up

By Gaveliers, The Gavel Media Team, on October 26, 2009 11:51 AM

By Andrew Schofield, For the Gavel -

With Ted Kennedy’s death, insta­bility has been brought to a seat not known for its competition, since he has occupied that seat since 1962. This year, Massachusetts is about to witness a rare occurrence: a competitive Sen­ate race.

Despite the late January election date, many believe the race will be de­cided on Dec. 8 when Massachusetts Democrats vote in the primary election for their chosen candidate.

“I like to stay optimistic, but the chances of a Republican winning in [Massachusetts] are slim to none,” Douglas Hernandez, A&S ’13, said.

Considering Massachusetts has not seen a true competitive Senate race since 1984, many prominent politicians have entered the race, realizing it might be their only opportunity for a Senate seat.

Democratic candidates include cur­rent Attorney General Martha Coakley, Congressman Mike Capuano, Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, and former City Year CEO Alan Khazei.

Coakley supporters point to the fact that, in this shortened election, Coak­ley’s stance on many issues was made clear through her role as the state’s At­torney General. According to a recent Suffolk University/WHDH-TV News poll, only 12 percent of voters polled said they did not know who Coakley is. The Coakley campaign also recently announced that nearly half of Massa­chusetts’ State Senators have endorsed the current Attorney General.

Capuano’s strongest case for the vacant Senate seat is his nine years of experience on Capitol Hill serving the Boston area. His service makes him an attractive candidate to step into power during this tumultuous time in Wash­ington D.C. However, many Democrat­ic primary voters will find it difficult to distinguish between the nearly identical platforms of Coakley and Capuano.

Khazei is focusing on creating a grassroots campaign led by young peo­ple across college campuses. Khazei has also been focusing on fundraising, bringing over $1.1 million campaign. Max Kennedy, son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, has also endorsed him.

“The conventional wisdom in this election is wrong, on everything. We’ve never done this before,’’ Khazei told the Boston Globe, dismissing the ‘under­dog’ label.

What Pagliuca lacks in political ex­perience, he more than makes up for with his personal reserve for campaign funds, as his net worth is estimated to be $410 million. The private equity investor has relied on bombarding the airwaves with television ads, including one in which he claims partial responsi­bility for the turn around of the Boston Celtics.

While Pagliuca has stuck to non-confrontational television ads, Capua­no has shown no fear of trading barbs with other candidates. Despite Coak­ley’s strong liberal background, Capua­no has begun courting Massachusetts’ progressives by attacking Coakley’s support for the death penalty in limited circumstances.

“This is one of the few issues she has a record on and I have a record on, and there are differences,” Capuano said recently in a Boston Globe interview. “I have opposed the death penalty my whole life.”

The likely Republican candidate Scott Brown, a current state senator, is not conceding the race despite the Democratic nature of Massachusetts’ government. Although Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling flirted with the possibility of running in the Republican primary, he opted out, leaving Brown, Canton Selectman and Bob Burr as the major Republican candidates.

The latest poll, released on Oct. 7, showed Coakley had a wide lead in the four-way race among the Democratic candidates. The campaign’s pollsters found that Coakley would garner 47 percent of the vote, Capuano, 12 per­cent, Pagliuca, 4 percent, and Khazei, 1 percent. The poll, however, was taken towards the end of September, when Pagliuca and Khazei were barely in the race.

With the Dec. 8 primary looming, the strategy each candidate will take will most likely differ from traditional tactics, given the shortened nature of the election. Typically, candidates have well over a year to build momentum, but given the short time frame, that won’t occur. Despite the shortened time frame, if history is any indicator, it might be a while before another one comes around.