The Boston Herald is reporting that turnout may be as high as 70%. Bay State anecdotes from NRO:
— “While I live in a South Shore town that is as red as a Massachusetts town can get, I am a transplant and therefore still a little gun shy given the state's leanings and my predilections (strongly conservative). A friend had dropped off some Brown signs to me this morning and as I was putting them up on my lawn on a fairly well traveled street in my town, a car stopped. "Here we go," I thought. I can't wait to hear what this joker has to say, expecting the worse. "Where did you get those?" this perfect stranger asked me - and then asked if I could spare a couple. He told me a buddy of his that lives a few towns over had resorted to putting up homemade Brown signs because he couldn't wait to get the real ones from the local Brown campaign office. This complete stranger stayed and vented for three or four minutes about how we need to send a message, and how we had to "stop the nonsense in Washington." This thing has all the earmarks of a blowout. Keep your fingers crossed.”
— I'm a resident of Brookline, MA, a very blue suburb of Boston wedged between the city and other very blue suburbs (Newton, etc.—all in Barney Frank's district). I have not seen a single Coakley sign in any of my travels through these neighborhoods, which in '08 were littered with Obama signs and featured several Obama fundraisers. Now, nothing, nada for Coakley. Not even on the streets in the vicinity of the home of Steven Grossman, the DNC chair in the late 1990s. The only Coakley sign I have seen at all is the IBEW sign on I-93 that your earlier correspondent mentioned. I have seen several Brown signs, though, in this area. Just stunning. Also, today I took the T into Boston (down Beacon St.). Typically, at Coolidge Corner (the intersection of Harvard St. and Beacon) there are several aging hippies on Saturdays waving peace flags and chanting anti-war slogans. Not so today. Rather—several folks holding Brown signs. It's a world turned upside down....”
— “Just before 5 this afternoon I was driving home with my 11-year-old son when we drove past a restaurant with about 35 people milling around outside with Scott Brown signs. We pulled over and got the homemade (on the ol' deskjet) signs out of the back window of my car and ran across the street to join the fun. Apparently this event was only planned last night and wasn't well publicized, but people were pulling over and parking as we had done. About 2 blocks away the 4:00 Mass at Sacred Heart was ending and a lot of people saw the crowd and walked over as well. About 40% of the signs in the crowd were homemade; in fact we saw one family who'd just pulled-over furiously making theirs out of a corrugated cardboard box that had been in the back of their minivan. By the time the candidate arrived there were at least 300 people outside, and probably 50 inside the restaurant. Brown was at ease and really had the look of a winner. This is only the second time in the past 25 years that I've voted for a candidate for major office who isn't 100% pro-life, but he is by far the lesser of two evils and probably the most conservative one could be and win a statewide race in the Peoples' Republic these days.”
— “From the North Shore (big Dem territory): People are excited about Scott Brown. There were sign holders at major intersections and people were honking and waving with enthusiasm, while there is not a single Coakley sign to be seen. I spoke to a bunch of people tonight who are all pumped up to vote for Brown. Later on in a bar – people are talking Brown – like they are on a mission. The Salem News endorsed Brown, and the online the endorsement got 215 comments, all positive. My wife and I are both unenrolled (independent), always have been and we got six Brown calls today – three from volunteers, one from his daughter Ayla, one from Newt and the best one from Curt Schilling. Not a single Martha call. However a few Dem friends of mine got calls from Obama and they all mocked him. As you would expect, it’s about healthcare and everyone hates the bill and wants it stopped. By the way, as much as they are voting against Obama, they are voting against Deval Patrick, too. The people of MA have been duped by David Axelrod twice and they are not pleased.”
— “While driving to my son’s basketball game today, not one Coakley sign but several for Brown. I have become so used to smiling and walking away when any discussion turns to politics. It never occurs to some liberal Democrats in this state that not everyone agrees with their opinions. (And they think we are provincial and small minded!) Today was totally liberating! Parents before the game were talking openly about supporting and voting for Brown. I was speechless. Even those inclined to support health care reform are anxious about the secretive, rushed process. I know people are lauding Brown's "JFK ad" and the "It's not Teddy's seat" quip from the debates as turning points in this race, but a real hat tip has to go to Brian Lamb and CSPAN for exposing how severely the Democrats have subverted the Constitutional process this year. Who would have thought the national media would give an assist to the Republicans? Fingers Crossed in Acton, MA!”
— “When I started going to the Brown office in Hyannis a month or so back it was just me and Pat, the office manager, on the phones. Not like I am a campaign office rat or anything . . . Tonight, I headed down to make a few calls. Couldn't get anywhere near the office. Completely full of volunteers manning the phones, others doing other campaign stuff on tables. Oh, well. The best part about the location in Hyannis is that it is right next to a cigar bar called 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. Grabbed a stogie and a beer (Sam Adams, of course) and had a seat. Naturally, the conversation all around me was on one subject only.”
— “I started phone banking two weeks ago in the Boston office and it was usually four or five people sitting making calls. I tried to get in Thursday and the phones were full — I practically had to sit in my neighbor's lap in order to get to a phone. The enthusiasm is just off the charts. I've been openly Republican in Mass for a while now and it's simply thrilling to be able to share this kind of enthusiasm with so many of my fellow citizens. I'm a sap, so it sometimes gets me choked up. My Democratic friends (and own mother!) keep trying to tell me how conservative Brown really is and how he's just trying to fool the independents. I just laugh and say that they've clearly never seen what someone from, say, Texas would call conservative. It would curl their hair. I'm more conservative than Brown is, but I would be happy to have him representing me in the Senate. We're trying to stave off the next click of the one-way ratchet of government growth. If the people of Massachusetts see that as a fight worth having, I guaran-damn-tee you that the rest of the country will as well.”
— “I attended the Scott Brown rally this morning in Quincy. I saw a great sign: "For the first time in my life, I am proud to be from Massachusetts.” I know the sentiment exactly.
— “This is all anecdotal and un-scientific, but I wanted to let you know about what I am hearing. I was born and raised in Haverhill, Mass. in your typical good Catholic Democrat family - socially conservative but fiscally liberal. I was the renegade Republican for years, going back to my first vote for Bush over Dukakis (heresy!) in 1988. I'm now in Southern California, but talk with people from the family a couple of times a week on Facebook and IRC. With the exception of my 20-year old nephew being indoctrinated by the state employees (aka professors and instructors) at college, every one of my five siblings, all my other nephews and niece, my aunts and uncle, my cousins and my mother are all voting for Brown. And they are excited about it! My mother, for the first time in her life, has a campaign sign in front of her house and bumper stickers on her car. She tells me that there is not a Coakley sign to be found in her neighborhood - and that her friends from the parish who get together once a week to play cards all feel the same way. My wife doesn't understand my obsession with following this race from 3000 miles away, but trying to explain how much Bay Staters love talking politics is like what Louis Armstrong said once: ‘If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.’”
— “Just a couple things you need to know about the rally in Quincy. I’ve lived there my whole life and went to the rally today. Quincy is a very, very blue city (right next to Boston); and traditionally a very, very blue-collar city of Irish and Italian Catholic union workers, ship-building and stone cutting back in its hey-day; very big JKF country. So to have a big Brown turnout was pretty shocking. People are finally turning the corner. The union guys who pulled the levers for Dems for a generation just because that’s what they were told to do are finally waking up. My whole family, other than me, is union plumbers. Despite the fact the unions are “officially” supporting Coakley, there is little support within the rank and file. Finally, one other thing: Quincy is also City of Presidents, the only home of two presidents. Right across the street from where Brown spoke Saturday is the church that houses the bodies of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, both of whom were born in what is now Quincy. John Hancock was born a short distance up the rode. This city played a pivotal role in the founding of the nation and you’d like to think that this history would awaken the locals. I’m hoping this Brown rally Saturday symbolized something new.”
— “How much trouble is Coakley in? I am a public school teacher in Massachusetts (and a conservative at that). Yesterday I saw a faculty member carrying a Brown sign in the hall. He got it from another faculty member so he could put it in his yard. NEA members openly supporting a Republican in MA? Unheard of.”
— “What's going on up here right now is just surreal. I was at the University of New Hampshire during the N.H. Primary in '08 and I'm not sure the enthusiasm that surrounded Obama or Hillary then would match what I'm seeing for Scott Brown. It's as if all this anti-tax-and-spend sentiment has been building up for years and years here and has finally been released. People are leading off conversations about how excited they are to be able to vote for Scott Brown on Tuesday. I was taking the Green Line home in Boston the other day and noticed a speech bubble added in next to a girl for a Suffolk University ad that said "Vote for Scott Brown Jan/19/2010." Usually the graffiti on the T is of the 9/11 conspiracy/anti-Semitic variety.”
— “Today, on the Fox NFL pre-game show, both campaigns' advertisements are going ahead full steam. During one commercial break, there were three consecutive politics ads: (1) Brown's standard ad criticizing Coakley's negative ads, (2) an ad from The Tea Party Express for Brown, highlighting his attack on the health care bill and wasteful spending in Washington, and (3) an ad on behalf of Coakley from an advocacy group, criticizing Brown's opposition to the health care bill and the fact that he supposedly wants to do nothing to stop Wall Street bonuses. During a later break, the DSCC ran an ad criticizing Brown for things like voting against funding of universities and colleges.”
— “I live in Franklin, MA which went 55-45ish for Obama. Five Scott Brown volunteers are canvassing my neighborhood handing out leaflets and motivating people to vote on Tuesday. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. I've lived in MA for over 15 years, and trust me, THIS NEVER HAPPENS. It should be noted a couple of the volunteers were from Texas, that's right Texas. Talk about a national campaign. The energy level is high, victory is within reach!” |
