special election

On Monday night, Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown sparred for an hour over health care, taxes, terrorism, abortion, and the death penalty. In what was the campaign's final debate and the only one broadcast live in Massachusetts' largest media market, Coakley committed at least one serious gaffe when she said there are no terrorists left in Afghanistan because they've all gone to Yemen or Pakistan. Barack Obama would beg to disagree.

After last night's shock poll showed Brown up 1 point (i.e. a statistical tie), we have a Boston Globe poll that shows Brown is trailing Democrat Martha Coakley by 15 points.

Boston

Democratic attorney general Martha Coakley's campaign strategy is pretty simple: If she can run out the clock and deny Republican state senator Scott Brown the chance to make any big plays, she wins the January 19 special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat. That's why she's agreed to "just one live, televised debate [on January 11] in Boston, the state’s major media market," has declined any debate that doesn't include libertarian candidate Joseph Kennedy, and has been avoiding the media.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported last night that a private poll last week had the Massachusetts Senate race at 50-39 for the Democrat, Martha Coakley. Scott Rasmussen will apparently soon report that his survey last night has Republican Scott Brown down by nine points, 50-41.