Brown defeats Coakley in Mass. Senate race

BOSTON | Riding a populist tide of voter anger, Republican Scott Brown on Tuesday won the Senate seat held for 47 years by Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, giving the GOP enough votes to frustrate President Obama’s health care reform plan — and perhaps his entire agenda.

Coming on Day 364 of the president’s first year in office, the come-from-behind victory stunned Democrats on Capitol Hill as they prepare to face voters in less than 10 months and served as a wake-up call to Mr. Obama, whose poll numbers have plummeted amid growing discontent over his agenda. Mr. Obama called the senator-elect shortly after his win to congratulate him.

“I bet they can hear this cheering all the way in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Brown told elated supporters Tuesday night at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel. “They thought you were on board with all of their ambitions. They thought they owned your vote. They thought they couldn’t lose. But tonight, you — and you and you and you and you — have all set them straight.”

Mr. Brown’s opponent, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, conceded quickly, calling Mr. Brown a little more than an hour after polls closed at 8 p.m. Despite a last-minute campaign visit by Mr. Obama — who won the state in 2008 by a 27-point margin — the Democrats failed to persuade voters that she was the rightful heir to the Kennedy seat.

“I am heartbroken at the result, and I know that you are also, but I know that you will get up together and continue this fight even with this result tonight. There will be plenty of Wednesday-morning quarterbacking about what went right, what went wrong, and I know everyone — including me — will be brutally honest,” Mrs. Coakley told her supporters.

She said Mr. Obama called after she conceded and told her: “We can’t win them all.”

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Brown led Mrs. Coakley 51.9 percent to 47.1 percent. Turnout was heavy on a cold New England day with intermittent snow showers and freezing drizzle. Boston reported twice the primary turnout among early voters, while in western Massachusetts, voters waited in long lines, some for more than an hour. More than 2.2 million people voted, topping 50 percent of those registered and far above the 20 percent turnout in the Dec. 8 primary.

Even before the polls closed, infighting broke out among dispirited Democrats. Mrs. Coakley’s campaign blamed the Democratic National Committee and a team of high-level party operatives dispatched from Washington in the final frenetic days of the campaign, saying they engaged too late and did not offer financial support.

Emotions ran high at the Park Plaza, where hundreds of Brown supporters gathered. And the senator-elect told supporters that Democrats across the country ought to take a lesson from his victory.

“We are united by basic convictions that need only to be clearly stated to win a majority. If anyone still doubts that, in this next election season that’s about to begin, then let them look to Massachusetts,” he said to cheers.

“What happened in this election can happen all over America.”

Shortly after Mrs. Coakley conceded, the crowd broke out in chants of “Seat him now.” Democrats are in a final push on Capitol Hill to pass a health care bill, and Mr. Brown’s vote could prove crucial.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said in a statement that Mr. Brown would be seated “as soon as the proper paperwork has been received.”

“While Senator-elect Brown’s victory changes the political math in the Senate, we remain committed to strengthening our economy, creating good-paying jobs and ensuring all Americans can access affordable health care,” Mr. Reid said.

But Mr. Brown insisted that “we need to start fresh” on health care.

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