Martha Coakley

Dana Goldstein at the Daily Beast is bummed, along with her fellow feminists from Massachusetts who put their weight behind Martha Coakley early on in the primary, only to be disappointed during the general election as Scott Brown moved ahead in the polls with the support of the Tea Party movement and other voters fed up with the Obamacare mess.  While they still support her effort and are making calls on her behalf, feminist groups in Massachusetts are scratching their heads toda

As Mary Katharine notes below, Ben Smith reports that a Coakley adviser is sending around a memo blaming national Democrats for Coakley's current predicament, and Washington Democrats are firing back.

A Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll released yesterday showed remarkably high support for Scott Brown, especially among two groups that many would assume to be sure bets for Martha Coakley: women and youth.

Byron York of the Washington Examiner reports that Coakley's fellow Democrats are turning against her.  They're blaming Coakley not only for her “inept campaign,” but also for her aloof personality and poor relationship with the Kennedys and Obama:

Assuming that the Massachusetts election results page (update: see results here) doesn't crash due to a tremendous amount of traffic, what should one be looking for after the polls close at 8:00 p.m. and numbers begin pouring in? The Cook Political Report's election whiz David Wasserman writes in an email to THE WEEKLY STANDARD:

1) Western Mass - Coakley needs a huge margin out of what I call the "Rachel Maddow Belt" - the Berkshires, where she has roots, and the Pioneer Valley. She probably needs a 5,000 vote lead out of Amherst and high turnout in places like Springfield, Pittsfield, and Northampton.

Stu Rothenberg: "If you are looking for an analogy for a Republican victory in Massachusetts, the best one for Democrats may well be the stock market crash of 1929. Come Tuesday night, you could have Democrats jumping out windows and off roofs ..."

Happy Massachusetts special election day. As Bay State voters head to the polls, political scientist Charles Franklin concludes: "Republican Scott Brown holds a lead in all 18 alternative models of the Massachusetts Senate race polls, now including all polls released through 6:00 p.m. Monday. Our standard trend estimate puts the race at a 6.2 point Brown lead over Democrat Martha Coakley."

From the New York Times website:

From Politico:

A new InsiderAdvantage poll conducted exclusively for POLITICO shows Republican Scott Brown surging to a nine-point advantage over Martha Coakley a day before Massachusetts voters trek to the ballot box to choose a new senator.

52-45:

Key findings: "Brown leads Coakley 97% to 1% among registered Republicans and he leads 64% to 32% among unenrolled voters. Coakley leads Brown 73% to 23% among registered Democrats."

Coakley has lost ground among unenrolled voters over the last ARG poll, conducted days earlier.

Where's Madisonianism when you need it, asks Boston College's law school dean?

Forcing a nurse with religious scruples to provide such a pill is a more extreme measure than the one Madison remonstrated against. It is a case of forcing her not to cooperate with evil, but to do evil herself (as she sees it). It’s not like taxing Quakers to support the army; it’s like drafting a Quaker into the infantry and ordering him to shoot the enemy.

The latest Research 2000 poll, conducted January 15 to 17 for Daily Kos, shows Brown and Coakley tied at 48%. In sharp contrast to last night's PPP poll, the Kos poll shows Coakley with a higher favorable/unfavorable rating than Brown:

Coakley: 58/31

Brown: 51/30

The PPP poll showed Coakley with a -7 favorable rating (44/51), while Brown had a +19 favorable rating (56/37).