Pro-Marriage Candidate Wins US Senate Race in Massachusetts

Here is a sampling from news sources:

NECN (New England): Brown wins Senate race, credits "independent majority"

Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, and could allow the GOP to block the president's priorities with filibusters.

Boston Globe: Mass Senate Candidates Battle to the End

More voters showed up at the polls Tuesday than in any non-presidential general election in Massachusetts since 1990.

WHDH (NBC affiliate): In epic upset, GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate race

The loss by the once-favored Coakley for the seat that the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy held for nearly half a century signaled big political problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

CNN: Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race

Brown's victory made real the once unthinkable prospect of a Republican filling the seat held by Kennedy [...] [Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill] Galvin predicted as many as 2.2 million of the state's 4.5 million registered voters would vote -- at least double the turnout from December's primary.

FOX News: Brown Scores Upset Victory Over Coakley

"Tonight, the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken," Brown said. "This Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one political party. ... This is the people's seat." [...] Brown's victory has powerful ramifications for Obama's agenda. The GOP state senator, once sworn in, will break the Democrats' 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in Washington.

Washington Post: First thoughts on Scott Brown's special election victory

How big an impact will Massachusetts have in determining the landscape for the midterms? [...] Democrats must work day in and day out to avoid broad losses outside of the historic norms for a first term, midterm election. [...]

One House Republican strategist put their recruitment strategy bluntly: "No Democrat is safe. Period."

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Return to "Coakley and Brown: Clarifying Disagreement on Marriage Issue in Close Senate Race."

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My own first thoughts:

[Click here to read the rest of this blogpost.]

US Senator-elect Brown has a track record of standing against the SSM campaign in his homestate. He has committed to protect the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). And while there are other big issues that have helped define his campaign and have propelled him into an unlikey victory today, he is a new voice for marriage from a state that the SSM campaign has claimed as the "birth place of same-sex marriage".

Despite the long list of successes and wins by marriage defenders, some of us have begun to feel the burden of issue fatigue. Indeed, inducing such fatigue is one of the keys to the pro-SSM strategy. But I think we can take heart and encouragement from the pro-marriage developments on the political front.

For marriage defenders, we need to keep in mind that the top problem that elected reprsentatives have -- over and above the marriage issue and any other public policy issue -- is election/re-election. They think of it every day.

Democrats or Republicans who commit to protect DOMA and to stand for marriage will be looking for our support, one way or another. Politicians are vulnerable during primaries. We can influence the future of marriage, one election at-a-time. As we have seen during the past several months in the Northeast -- including Massachusetts -- there is opportunity for marriage defenders to make their influence felt on general elections, also.

Brown describes himself as an independent Republican. In Massachusetts the independent voters outnumber Democrats and Republicans combined. The national trend is toward more independent voters in each and every state.

That suits the defense of marriage very well: the pro-marriage view cuts across partisan and ideological lines. More moderates and liberals combined, and more Democrats and Independents combined, have voted in favor of state marriage amendments than have conservatives, than have Republicans.

We just need to speak up and show our support for elected representatives who will be stalwart in their commitment to the defense of marriage. And, if that means punishing those who do not -- by withholding our financial contributions, volunteer work, and votes -- so be it. But as Scott Brown's victory demonstrates, it is much more fun to get behind a candidate who is moving in the right general direction. If that candidate fights the good fight, and still loses, well, there is joy even in that.

No candidate running for election, or for re-election, will be "perfect" and so we have to be prudent and reasonable in our choices. If your local candidates are very dissappointing, consider supporting candidates in neighboring jurisdictions. Make your choices with a clear conscience and, as a I say, prudential judgement. That's how you can leverage the power of your participation (big or small) in our democratic process. And good candidates understand this as the basic bulding block of successful election campaigns.

That's one of the bigger lessons from the Brown surge in Massachusetts. It is humbling.

The political defense of marriage is important, yes, as is the legal defense in our courtrooms, yes, but the affirmation and strenghtening of the social institution will always remain the hardwork of nongovernmental organizations and institutions. It is the life-changing vocation of married fatherhood and motherhood. Is the transformation from singlehood to conjugality of husband and wife; a transformation that takes a lifetime to fulfill. The government is not the solution to everything that ails marriage in our culture.

This means the solution is you and me and all of us, each acting according to his abilities, means, and calling.

The next decade is shaping up as a good decade for marriage.

Be not afraid. Be of good cheer.

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Return to "Coakley and Brown: Clarifying Disagreement on Marriage Issue in Close Senate Race."