The favorites win with ease in Senate special election

Low turnout had no effect on the favorites during the Tuesday, Dec. 8, special election to replace the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown easily advanced to the finals, which will be decided on Jan. 19.

Coakley, the state's attorney general, won handily over her fellow Democrats, netting 47 percent of the vote. Her closest competitor in the four-person race, Congressman Mike Capuano, took home 28 percent, and the two lesser-known candidates, City Year founder Alan Khazei and Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca, earned 13 and 12 percent of the vote respectively. Capuano won Boston narrowly, taking 40 percent compared with Coakley's 37 percent, but the ultimate winner's name recognition throughout the state paid off. She won decisively in Springfield, Lowell, and Worcester.

On the Republican side, Brown, a state senator, beat lawyer Jack E. Robinson with 89 percent, carrying every town in the Commonwealth expect Heath. The two party candidates will face independent Joe Kennedy -- who is not related to the late Ted Kennedy -- in the final election next month.

Capuano received Bay Windows' endorsement and that of openly gay Congressman Barney Frank, while Coakley received the endorsements of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus and MassEquality.

At her victory speech at the Sheraton Boston, Coakley spoke of proving doubters wrong on her way to potentially becoming the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.

"We all know there were plenty of skeptics out there," she told a throng of supporters that included Massachusetts political heavyweights such as Governor Deval Patrick and Senator John Kerry. "They said, 'How could an attorney general win?' We believed it was quite possible. How could she raise the money? But we believed it was quite possible. They said that women don't have much luck in Massachusetts politics. We believed that it was quite possible that that luck was about to change. And change it did tonight! With focus, grit, hard work, optimism, enthusiasm, commitment, and yes, a sense of humor, you all made tonight possible."

Brown, who has received far less media coverage than the Democratic candidates thus far, spoke of being the underdog in the second round of this special election sprint at his post-polls party at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel. He said that he has "learned a lot" traveling the state without an entourage of media members following him, which allowed him "to actually listen to what people were telling [him]."

"You may not have heard of me before now because all the focus has been on the other side where the candidates were competing for title of 'most liberal,'" said Brown. "In this upcoming election, if you want business as usual, with higher taxes, more spending and not having a voice in Washington, then vote for my opponent. But if you want real change on January 19th, and if you want somebody who will fight to lower your taxes, keep more money in your pockets, and bring common sense back to Washington, D.C., then join with me and make a real difference."

On a day when the favorites easily won, another spate of voter apathy hit the South End -- and Boston as a whole. Turnout in Boston weighed in at just 17.7 percent.

Julie, a South Ender who chose not to give her last name, said she only voted because she was waiting for the bus outside Cathedral and there was no line. She added that she didn't believe her vote would have much impact.

"I don't think it's going to make that much of a difference, I think Coakley's going to win it, but it was sort of, I think I did it more for Ted Kennedy," she said.