Nominally an extremely safe seat for the Democrats, the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley should be a shoe-in.
And yet Republican former centrefold star Scott Brown, once voted by Cosmo as America’s Sexiest Man (the link is fairly safe for work, but does contain a tastefully cropped naked man) has been closing the gap in the polls, and in some cases even taken a lead.
Of key importance in this battle is the senatorial supermajority, which we have covered on The Voice in the past. In the US senate, a party with 60 of the 100 senators – or the votes of 60 senators – can move a vote of cloture which can end a filibuster. This removes from the minority party a powerful tool to veto legislation by talking it out. This has become all the more fraught recently since Obamacare, the extremely controversial healthcare legislation currently under consideration. If the Republicans win the Massachusetts, the Democrats lose their right of veto and they could lose Obamacare.
Here’s a video for each candidate to give you a flavour of the battle.
First, President Obama is staking his political reputation to support Martha Coakley and underlining the future of Obamacare:
Last November’s contest has dragged on, primarily as a result of a protracted legal battle in closely fought Minnesota. Last week, however, incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman finally abandoned his legal suit after the State’s Supreme Court found unanimously in favour of Democrat Al Franken, the liberal former radio talk show host and author of ‘Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right’. Franken is becoming adept at getting his way in the Courts, Fox News having failed in their bid to sue him for …
nigel hunter We cannot fund the needs of the people and country if we are a low tax party....
Jonathan Calder Do we want to be a low-tax party? It seems the leadership wants to fight the next election on that basis, but I detect no great enthusiasm for the idea among th...
Nick Baird @Alex @Rees - I was referring to the quoted surveys by VPZ and E-Cigarette Direct, who have a vested interest in selling vapes and are effectively claiming that...
Rees Southern Hi Nick, as Alex points out, ASH is not a vested interest. Nor are the other organisations mentioned in my article, including the Royal College of Physicians, C...
Matt (Bristol) I dont think lib dems should be a low tax or high tax party. I would like them (Or someone else) to be a subsidiarist, consensualist party, whereby levels of ta...
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nigel hunter 
Jonathan Calder 
Nick Baird 
Rees Southern 
Matt (Bristol) 