On the night of January 19, 2010 America’s political landscape was rocked by a mega political earthquake. Scott Brown, Republican, won the Senate seat held for 38 years by Ted Kennedy, Democrat.

 

 Underdog Republican lite candidate, Scott Brown, running as a new type of Republican, defeated Democratic State Attorney General, Martha Coakley by 53 to 46 percent of the vote. Ted Kennedy, Democrat, had held this seat since 1972. With Kennedy’s death, this became an open seat. Conventional thinking held that the Democrats had only to place a name on the ballot and win. Coakley held a 3 to 1 lead over Brown very late in the race.

Coakley ran a weak campaign in the final weeks of the race. She made fun of the sports minded blue collar workers. That marked the point that her campaign started its nose dive downward in the polls. Coakley became captured by thinking that this was to be forever a solid Democratic Senate seat.

 Brown won by using his pickup truck as his traveling platform to reach out to working folks throughout the Senate District. His message was more in line with the Tea Party movement than Republican speak. He pledged to be the 41^st Senator in voting against President Obama’s health care bill. He worked hard in the small towns of Massachusetts to tear into the health care debate by going after the weak explanations from the White House on what was included in the bill being voted on in Congress.

On the scale of impact, this election is rated a 7 out of 10. Yes, this will be a major disruption for the politics of Massachusetts. Yet, in the long run of history and national politics, this unexpected win for the Republicans will set in motion a series of national “battles for position” within the 2010 through 2012 political war landscape.