Never underestimate the power of local media, although I can’t really say if this made a difference. But Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) has his own public access cable show he uses to keep in touch with his constituents.
It shall be interesting to see if this has any impact on his approach to cable issues, although I suspect he is unlikely to get on a committee where this would matter.
Somewhat more seriously, it underscores the importance of staying in touch with your constituents, and the importance of PEG regardless of political allegiance. Brown won, among other reasons, because he actually went out and campaigned. This also wasn’t some clever act of pretending to stay in touch with constituents. Looking at his record here, he has been doing local cable show for years, and doing local events.
If one truth is emerging from the spate of special elections from NY-29 to last night’s MA race, it is that politicians cannot phone in their campaigns and expect the party affiliation (either their own or their opponent’s) to carry the day. Ya gotta work it. So the next time local cable access programmer asks for an interview, don’t snort “Wayne’s World, right” and blow them off. Take a lesson from Scott Brown — commitment to local media matters.
Stay tuned . . . .
I’m far more libertarian than anything else, so (with smug assurance my candidates will never win), I sat back and amusedly watched as my fellow residents slammed the door on Ted’s self-proclaimed healthcare mantra.
Oh, the irony.
With that said, I’m sad Obama lost his supermajority. I’m pretty ambivalent to his actions, but at least he’s trying to do *something* positive. I greatly admire him for that.
Coakley screwed the pooch on this one.
Harold,
I think you make some very interesting observations. Whatever I may think of Scott Brown’s politics (I don’t like his positions on basically anything), I do concede that he earned his seat in the Senate, and I also believe that he sincerely cares about representing the people of the Commonwealth.
Because I’m a masochist, I sometimes listen to the morning show on WEEI, the sports station. The morning hosts are a pair of whiney-ass Republican Bush-worshiping ignorami, and they were of course very pro-Brown; Brown was their guest on several occasions during the election.
On election day, as they concluded their final interview with Scott Brown, they mentioned that they had repeatedly invited Ms. Coakley onto their show, and she or her staff had explicitly declined five times.
Theirs is the most listened-to morning radio show in Massachusetts.
Instead, Coakley chose to insult Red Sox fans in the week before the election.
Good job, Martha!
Good job, Martha!