Coakley Hits Brown for Being a Lockstep Republican

by Jonathan Singer, Mon Jan 11, 2010 at 09:28:23 PM EST

A tough new ad from Martha Coakley:

It looks like Coakley has realized that she isn't going to be able to win this race without effort. Democrats in Washington have gotten the message, too, dispatching DNC national press secretary Hari Sevugan, a veteran of the 2008 campaign, to help Coakley make it to the finish line.

At present, the Pollster.com trend estimate on the race gives Coakley about a 10-point lead -- though there is a lot of variance in the numbers from the different surveys looking at the race. If you want to help out the Coakley campaign, too, click here to contribute.

Tags: MA-Sen, Senate 2010, Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, Special Elections (all tags)

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hmmm

Something tells me she's not up 50-36 like Mellman says.

by Jerome Armstrong 2010-01-11 09:38PM | 0 recs

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RE: hmmm

She's at 50... in an internal poll... the bottom number is meaningless... 50 is not a "comfortable" number.

by LordMike 2010-01-12 12:21AM | 0 recs

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Ads in Boston

Coakley ads have been showing nearly every other commercial break across primte tv and were constant during all four playoff games over the weekend here in Boston.

by Kyle Shank 2010-01-11 09:49PM | 1 recs

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RE: Ads in Boston

But, they were horrible boilerplate ads, weren't they?

by LordMike 2010-01-12 12:22AM | 0 recs

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RE: Ads in Boston

they were boilerplate and safe but effective in mass repetition i think.

by Kyle Shank 2010-01-12 12:28AM | 1 recs

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My absentee ballot application is right here...

...and I'm going to City Hall to file it in person tomorrow. With any luck, I will be able to vote right there on the spot. It's great to see another bostonian on MyDD. without divluging too much information, Mike Capuano is my Congressman (the fighting eigth!).

I agree that Coakley's ads were politically safe and boilerplate, but in an essence, so are Brown's. Both candidates are pleasing to look at, but neither have great voices to listen to.

What I found most interesting was their messages over the weekend. I'm curious if you agree.

Coakley was focused on holding Washington and big business accountable, citing her record as attorney general. Brown was focussed on keeping America Safe from terrorism, appearing in his uniform. I'm really not so sure that terrorism is what is foremost on the minds of Bay Staters, but it will motivate an already energized conservative base. I'm curious how these two messages will play out.

by NoFortunateSon 2010-01-12 12:40AM | 0 recs

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RE: My absentee ballot application is right here...

barney frank is my rep in the 4th.

brown's message was odd and anti-constitutional. he basically advocates for more torture in that ad. i love how the picture of brown required a disclaimer saying that the Department of Defense doesn't endorse him along the bottom of the uniformed photo.

i guess brown's camp feels that they can ride the underwear bomber to victory. i haven't lived here for long but i dont think that strategy was even worth trying.

side note: i've seen coakley ads at least 3-4 times more than brown in the past day.

by Kyle Shank 2010-01-12 01:35AM | 0 recs

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$

Looks like Brown is having some money bomb success. He raised over a million today.

I have no feel for the race, other than to believe that its close, and that Coakley's team is a bit rattled. They wouldn't have went negative, obviously, unless their internal polling has spooked them into pulling the trigger. I really doubt too, that they had the time to research the fallout from going negative. Rather, that it was presented as a "do this or you're going to lose" scenario, and her camp has decided to pull the trigger. It's definitely a DC-driven ad, with its vitrolic partisan thematic. Its audience is the laggards and couch potatoes that are not responding to Coakley's campaign, so the media is attempting to prod them into voting out of fear against the Republican. The ad attempts to make "Republican" a dirty word, the likes of "liberal" and what Republicans made that word out to be in decades past.

by Jerome Armstrong 2010-01-11 10:26PM | 0 recs

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RE: $

I haven't seen the negative ad yet.

Her campaign has been running a very nice and plain ad consistently since Friday or Saturday.

by Kyle Shank 2010-01-11 11:39PM | 0 recs

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RE: $

I hate the voice in the negative ad. Its so predictable and slimy.

Is there only one voiceover guy in DC that does these things?

by Kyle Shank 2010-01-11 11:43PM | 0 recs

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Just like the one guy who does movie trailers

I guess there's only one guy who does political ads.

My favorite is when the guy completely changes tone when he's trying to speak favorably.

by NoFortunateSon 2010-01-12 12:51AM | 0 recs

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RE: $

Could be that they are releasing this for the internet mostly, in which case its a fail... I haven't looked into who is doing their media, but firms have go-to voices that they use over and over. This is one of those particular ones that gets used a lot.

by Jerome Armstrong 2010-01-12 09:11AM | 0 recs

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RE: $

How close is close?

They did have to go negative at some point... Someone needed to define Brown, more importantly, someone neede to fire up the base... I am a little worried that this one may be over the top. I do hope they get some Viki Kennedy ads in there at some point...

I hope it works.

I do think the internal polling is correct to a degree. Her topline is only at 50% They were emphasizing the lead, but the fact she tops out at 50% is disturbing, to say the least.

by LordMike 2010-01-12 12:21AM | 0 recs

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It's not a matter of closeness, but one of turnout

It's close for a Senate election in MA, too close, but I think the disparity in polling is a result of turnout models. I think the range of polls presents a best and worst case scenario on turnout for Coakley. At worst, this race is a dead heat, as Jerome believes. And quite frankly, I'd rather everyone believe that.

Based on the overwhelmingly larger number of Democrats in this state, I feel that Coakley can only improve from there. What is telling is that Brown has not broken 50, and Coakley has not exceeded it by much, leaving a large pool of undecideds.

I'm going to try and get some phone banking in this week.

by NoFortunateSon 2010-01-12 12:55AM | 0 recs

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I love it

I love it when Dem ads are just as brutal and tricky as GOP ads. The shot of Rush rocking the Nazi salute. The little blonde white girl on the suburban carpeted steps as the picture of a "rape victim". Classic. Great stuff. Viscious and negative and probably a little unfair, but I'm cool with that.

by riboflavin 2010-01-12 12:06AM | 0 recs

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I love it too...

...but I'm not so sure it's unfair.

First, as Jonathan(?) pointed out over the weekend, Brown's unfavorables were low amongst the entire population, indicating that Coakley had failed to define him. This add attempts to do just that.

Second, Brown had been running his campaign sort of sidestepping the fact that he was a Republican in Massachusetts. So, yeah, you're going to get called on that eventually. While I would have prefered Coakley to ease that message in over the past month when she was on vacation or whatnot, I can't speak to the political wisdom of a sudden attack versus a gradual one.

Finally, I'm not so sure this is an effort to win over independents as much as it is an effort to drive up turnout amongst complacent democrats.

by NoFortunateSon 2010-01-12 12:49AM | 0 recs

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Everybody take a deep breath.

Please.

by lojasmo 2010-01-12 10:01AM | 1 recs

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RE: Everybody take a deep breath.

Brown has a counter ad up now... it's very good... The man is very slick. I can see why people would fall for his schtick... Larry Sabato was right... if this was any other state, Martha would have been crushed by now. It makes me very nervous. The DSCC is now spending money... this can't be good at all!

by LordMike 2010-01-12 12:14PM | 0 recs

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RE: Everybody take a deep breath.

The DSCC is spending money on an open senate seat? Unheard of. We are obviously doomed.

by lojasmo 2010-01-12 11:34PM | 0 recs