Coakley, Brown winners in Massachusetts Senate Primary with low turnout

 Democratic Senate Nominee Martha Coakley (mc.com)

Just 52 minutes after the polls closed in Massachusetts, State Attorney General Martha Coakley is the Democratic Nominee for Senator. Republican Scott Brown defeated Jack E. Robinson in less than 10 minutes, to become the Republican nominee.

Low turnout (rumored to be around 15%) made this outcome anti-climatic, and very, very fast. Scott Brown will end up with close to 90% of Republican votes, and Martha Coakley will end up with more than 45% in the four-person primary on the Democratic side.

If there is a surprise at all in this election, it's that City Year Founder Alan Khazei is neck-and-neck with Friend of Mitt Romney, Steve Pagliuca for third place. Khazei is currently ahead. Right now he holds about 13% of Democratic votes, way up from the 6% he was polling just two weeks ago.

Now it will be interesting to see how both National parties decide to treat this race. The conventional wisdom is that a Democrat will run away with this in the January 19th Special Election. However, there is another school of thought that the RNC and all sorts of 527 groups will pour a ton of money into this race, because this seat now represents the “60th vote”. Should the RNC proceed in that fashion, it would stand to reason that the DNC would counter, and that the President and Vice President would pay a visit to the Commonwealth as well.

It will also be interested to see if the RNC does decide to put a lot of resources into the race. After all, Chairman Michael Steele has shown little but disdain for anyone who lives North of the Mason-Dixon line, especially Republicans. Rep. Scott Brown should be “Republican Enough” for their liking, but you never know what Michael Steele is thinking at any given moment.

This also begs the question, will Former Governor Sarah Palin show up here? What about the rest of the people responsible for the NY 23rd debacle? Does Glenn Beck do a live remote from Boston Harbor with a band of 50 teabaggers, to which he would say “hundreds of thousands”? Inquiring minds want to know. What about Joe Kennedy? He's the third candidate on the ballot (no relation to the actual Kennedys), who proclaims himself to be a Libertarian. Will this end up being a NY 23rd situation all over again?

Truth be told, Democratic Nominee Coakley will probably win the Senate seat by about 15 points. However, it's such a short turn-around to the Special Election, the machinations from both the National Committees and Parties may end up being the story of the race itself, instead of an actual voicing of the issues and choosing a candidate on their merits.

Congratulations to the nominees, Coakley and Brown. Shame on the Massachusetts electorate for such a pathetic turnout today. Turnout was better for municipal elections a few weeks ago than it was for an important Senate primary with exactly one question on the ballot. It literally took about 90 seconds to check in, vote, and check out. For a state which prides itself on its rich history of democracy and freedom, this is truly a pathetic display. The sad thing is, experts expect that turnout for the Special Election on January 19th is expected to be even lower.