The latest UMass Lowell-Boston Herald poll on the Mass. U.S. Senate race shows Elizabeth Warren leading Scott Brown 49-42. At this moment the poll is the home-page top story on huffingtonpost.com. The election polling is a project of the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion in collaboration with the Herald.
Here’s the poll results news story from UMass Lowell’s website.
The first poll from the new UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion is a joint effort with the Boston Herald—and the results show Sen. Scott Brown (Rep.) and candidate Elizabeth Warren (Dem.) in a near tie if voters today had to choose between them. Read the Center’s poll results here.
The poll results made national news and are featured high on the top stories list of this morning’s huffingtonpost.
Back in June at the Democratic State Convention at Worcester’s DCU Center, the speech by Vicki Kennedy during the tribute to her late husband, Senator Ted Kennedy, was the highlight of the convention, even eclipsing Governor Patrick’s very good nomination acceptance speech. At the time I remember thinking “is this the launch of Vicki Kennedy’s own Senate campaign?”
The cover story in today’s Globe Magazine asks that very same question in “Vicki Kennedy opens up on Life After Teddy.” Early in the article, Vicki seems to deny interest in elective office (“while Kennedy is determined to carry on her husband’s mission, she says she doesn’t want his job.”) but Kennedy herself never expressly rules out a run for office.
The office Vicki Kennedy would most likely seek, that of US Senator, is now held by Republican Scott Brown who stunned the political world with his victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley in last January’s special election to fill “the people’s seat” that was occupied by Ted Kennedy for so many decades. A Kennedy vs Brown campaign in 2012 would draw the world’s attention to Massachusetts and with it being a presidential election year, turnout would be sky high. While Brown is sitting on a huge amount of campaign money and is capable of raising an almost unlimited amount, his efforts to “triangulate” the reactionary Republican leadership of the US Senate and the more moderate voters of Massachusetts may have already tarnished his image a bit. His personal lobbying of Governor Patrick and State Senate President Murray for slot machines for his friend at the Plainridge Race Track as well as his votes against the extension of unemployment benefits and against Elena Kagan’s nomination to the US Supreme Court won’t endear him to the independent voters who dominate high turnout elections. And neither Vicki Kennedy nor her advisers would duplicate the missed opportunities of the 2010 Coakley for Senate campaign. Wouldn’t it be ironic that if the Senate goes to the Republicans this fall, that a Kennedy have the chance to break the Republican majority in 2012.
In a post on his “Talking Politics” blog on the Boston Phoenix website, David Bernstein suggests that the Scott Brown campaign may be violating the state’s anti-scalping law with an August 30 fund raiser at Lowell’s own Lelacheur Park. That night’s Spinners’ game features “Scott Brown bobblehead” night and Brown’s daughter Ayla will sing the National Anthem. The bobbleheads are being purchased by Zoll Medical of Chelmsford as a reward for Brown’s opposition to health care reform on the grounds that the new tax on medical devices would harm Zoll.
Brown is now selling tickets to the game for $75 (which includes a bobblehead and food from The Gator Pit). Bernstein contends that since Spinners tickets are only about $10 apiece, Brown’s markup may violate the state’s anti-scalping law. The reporters query on the legality of this event has thus far gone unanswered by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office.
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