Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley last night won the Democratic nomination for the late Edward Kennedy's vacant U.S. Senate seat, beating three other contenders in an election marked by paltry voter participation.
On the Republican side, State Senator Scott Brown (LA '81) ran away with 89 percent of the vote, beating his lone opponent, Jack Robinson.
As expected, turnout was generally low across the state, with election officials reporting a 10 percent turnout in Boston and similar figures in the rest of the state.
Freshman Steve Goeman, a volunteer for the Coakley campaign, and junior Michael Hawley, who served as president of the Tufts Republicans last year, both said that the results were unsurprising — though Goeman said that Coakley's margin was unexpectedly large.
The attorney general captured 47 percent of the vote; her closest challenger, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, garnered just 28 percent.
"She won by a pretty substantial margin that I don't think was expected," Goeman said. "I thought it would be a little closer."
The general consensus is that Brown will face an uphill challenge in the Jan. 19 general election to fill Kennedy's seat, given Massachusetts' largely Democratic leanings.
"It's a deeply blue state and it's Kennedy's seat, which means that the Republicans are going to have a really tough time," Hawley said.
Still, he believes that the Republican has a credible stake in the race. "Coakley comes across a bit as an everyday, ladder−climbing politician, whereas Brown is quite a bit more charismatic," Hawley said. "I think he has a chance but he has his work cut out for him."
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