US News

Democrats fumble Kennedy's seat, lose Senate supermajority (Roundup)

By Frank Fuhrig Jan 20, 2010, 8:28 GMT

Graphics shows Republican Scott Brown upset his Democratic rival in liberal Massachusetts\' special Senate election, jeopardizing President Barack Obama\'s healthcare overhaul on Jan. 19, 2010. (Credit Image: © Xinhua/ZUMApress.com)

Washington - Voters in the north-eastern state of Massachusetts dealt President Barack Obama's Democratic Party a major blow by electing a centre-right Republican to the seat long held by leftwing icon Ted Kennedy, who died last year.

Television networks projected state legislator Scott Brown the special election winner with 52 per cent of the vote to 47 per cent for Democratic nominee Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general, with nearly 90 per cent of the vote counted.

The vote drops the Democrats to 59 votes in the 100-seat Senate, leaving them shy of the supermajority of 60 senators needed to pass most measures.

The result could doom the major health-insurance overhaul that has been Obama's top domestic priority since entering office. Wednesday is the first anniversary of his inauguration.

'Tonight, the independent majority has delivered a great victory,' Brown said at his victory rally in Boston.

'People do not want the trillion-dollar (health) plan that's being forced on the American people.'

Brown, a little-known local politician before the US Senate campaign, just a few weeks ago was given little chance of winning.

The Republican victory is a shock in the notoriously left-leaning state, which has not had a Republican US senator in some 30 years. All 10 of Massachusetts' House districts elected Democrats in 2008.

But the state did elect centrist Republican governors from 1991- 2007.

Critics argued that Coakley ran a lacklustre campaign to replace Kennedy, while Brown succeeded in capturing the enthusiasm of his own party as well as moderate independents.

But the race was also viewed in part as a referendum on Obama, whose approval ratings have slipped steadily over the last year amid a long and divisive debate over health reforms. Obama campaigned Sunday for Coakley.

'This Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one party,' Brown said.

'This is the people's seat.'

Brown's victory follows the election of Republican governors in November by-elections in Virginia and New Jersey, both states that the Democrats had ruled and that Obama won just 12 months earlier.

The Massachusetts race was a further bad omen for the Democrats, with more than one third of the Senate and all of the House up for re-election in November.

Republicans are hoping to make major inroads in both chambers, as they did in 1994, when then-president Bill Clinton lost his Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate.

After the outcome was clear, Obama telephoned Brown to offer congratulations and said that he 'looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families and and struggling families across our nation,' the White House said.

The current health bill is touted as extending coverage to about 30 million Americans who have no health insurance. Opponents fear it amounts to a costly government expansion into the largely private system. The US public is sharply divided on the complex issue.

Democrats need all 60 votes in the Senate to overcome opposition filibusters, a procedural hurdle that can block legislation. Brown pledged to vote against a final health bill if he gets the chance.

The loss of their super majority would force Democrats to attract support for major legislation from at least some Republicans, who stand at odds on everything from the economy and immigration, climate change and financial regulatory reforms.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, who heads the Senate Democrats, refused to concede defeat on health-care legislation after the loss of the Massachusetts seat, which leaves him with a 59-41 advantage.

'While Senator-elect Brown's victory changes the political math in the Senate, we remain committed to strengthening our economy, creating good paying jobs and ensuring all Americans can access affordable health care,' he said.

Reid faces a difficult re-election in November in his own home state of Nevada, which has been hard-hit by the bursting of the US real-estate bubble.