The decades of Democratic reign on the Massachusetts Senate seat ended with the win of a Republican candidate, Scott Brown. This election did not depend on the popularity of Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate nor on the excellent experience Brown had to offer. It depended solely on the rights and wrongs of the two campaigns, as well as the Democracy that runs the American government.
“There’s lessons to be learned from what happened on Tuesday for the November midterm elections,” said Chris Cillizza, a reporter for the Washington Post and writer of the blog, The Fix.
Cillizza joined participating students of George Mason University, Pace University and Denver University, as well as Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks.
The distance learning course produced by C-SPAN, provides these students an opportunity to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.cspan.org/distance_learning/).
Brown made excellent moves during his campaign. His campaign released an ad in which he talked about and drove his truck. This ad caused a huge turnout of supporters. Why? Because this ad made the people of Massachusetts feel as if Brown was one of them.
Chris Cillizza comments on his ads and says that Brown portrayed himself as “someone who understood the average concerns of the people of Massachusetts.” These concerns would include taxes, government spending etc.”This establishes him as ‘of the people’,” Cillizza said. “That’s a winner.”
What Coakley did wrong in her campaign was, she did not “define her opponent,” Cillizza said. “Why don’t we know more about the wrongs of Scott Brown?” She waited till last minute to attack Brown. However, this backfired on her. The Coakley campaign aired something negative about Brown every day, starting five days before the campaign. This was a desperate move on their part. They came out to look untrustworthy.”If it looks like panic, smells like panic, then it probably is panic,” said Cillizza.
Steve Klein of GMU brought up an important point about the functionality of the system. “Politics is the new sports,” he said. “But are we playing the right game?” He asked Cillizza if “the government of the people is really working for the people?” In response to Klein’s question Cillizza said that Barack Obama won Mass. 62 percent to 48 percent. However, when a Republican wins a majority Democratic state with a message similar to that of Barack Obama, Cillizza continued, you know that democracy and our system is working. The popularity of political parties is far less important than what the candidates have to offer to the public.
Cokaley’s panic led Democrats out of the Senate in Massachusetts. In contrast, Brown’s consistent message and connection to the average people of Mass., carved his way to victory.