Scott Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race

Republican Scott Brown has won the Massachusetts special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the late Edward Kennedy.

Brown, who beat the state’s Democratic attorney general, Martha Coakley, will become the 41st Republican vote in the Senate, a shift in power that could block President Obama’s health care legislation if it comes up for a vote later this year.

“The president congratulated Senator Brown on his victory and a well-run campaign,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. “The president told Senator Brown that he looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families and struggling families across our nation.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, released a statement arguing that, “Massachusetts voters sent a clear message to the nation in favor of fiscal responsibility and checks-and-balances in Washington.”

“Even in the bluest of blue states, Scott Brown’s message resonated with families, seniors, and small business owners who have rejected President Obama’s massive health care takeover and the Democrats’ out-of-control spending agenda in Washington,” he said.

A Republican candidate has not won a Senate seat in the Bay State since 1972. Kennedy, who died of brain cancer last year, had held the seat for 47 years. Coakley had started off the campaign with a double-digit lead, according to polls, but the race tightened in recent weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada released a statement welcoming Brown to the Senate. He said the Senate would seat Brown “as soon as the proper paperwork has been received.”

“While Senator-elect Brown’s victory changes the political math in the Senate, we remain committed to strengthening our economy, creating good paying jobs and ensuring all Americans can access affordable health care,” Reid said. “We hope that Scott Brown will join us in these efforts. There is much work to do to address the problems Democrats inherited last year, and we plan to move full speed ahead.”

Republicans argued that the win forecast serious problems for Democrats in the fall congressional elections.

“Scott Brown’s win confirms the serious ramifications that will haunt Democrats all the way to the November elections,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said in a statement. “No matter how Democrats want to spin it, there is a movement building in America that threatens their majority in Congress.”

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said the party would work hard for at-risk House Democrats this year. “Elections are about choices,” he said, “and this year’s midterms will be a choice between continuing the economic progress and independent leadership that House Democrats are delivering for their districts versus Republicans who are eager to turn back the clock to the same failed Bush-Cheney policies that brought our economy to the brink of collapse.”
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