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A Dem insider on Mass. race

Here’s one of our readers, knowledgeable Democratic insider E.M., on the results of Tuesday’s Senate race in Massachusetts:

What does Massachusetts election mean for November?

Just about everybody in politics has an opinion of what happened in the Massachusetts special election for US Senate yesterday. Here’s mine.

Two bedrock principles of political campaigning are in play here.

The first fundamental is “Never take an opponent or a campaign for granted.” Martha Coakley and her campaign operatives in Washington and Boston took Sen-elect Scott Brown for granted.

She let up after her primary election win, sat on a lead, and evidently, didn’t adequately poll to catch the shift in the race. Basically, she was caught flatfooted. Thus, the outcome.

But what does this mean for the mid-term elections in November? That’s where the other political principle comes in play.

That theory goes: “A week is a lifetime in politics.” Anybody who tells you today they know what this portends for the 2010 election is merely speculating, or probably, guessing.

Nobody was predicting a mere month ago that Brown would win.

There are many weeks, or lifetimes, in the 10 months before the general election. Many things will change. That’s all I predict today. I wouldn’t pretend to know now how things will play out.

Stay tuned.

January 20, 2010 at 4:15 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

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