National air wars heat up in Mass. Senate special

[babylonsister]

National air wars heat up in Mass. Senate special
Chris Cillizza


One week before Massachusetts voters head to the polls to choose a replacement for the late Ted Kennedy, a bevy of national groups are flooding the state's television airwaves.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is spending more than a half million dollars on ads while the Service Employees International Union, one of the most politically active members of the labor coalition, has also bought ad time in support of state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D).

On the other side of the ledger, the conservative American Future Fund has been up with an ad bashing Coakley on taxes for the past few days while the Chamber of Commerce and the National Republican Trust PAC are buying ad time to boost state Sen. Scott Brown's (R) candidacy.

The attention now being paid to the race suggests two things: the contest, once expected to be a walk in the park for Coakley, has tightened considerably, and no less than the fate of the health care bill is at stake.

Polling is all over the board in the race with several automated surveys showing Coakley with a single digit lead while a Boston Globe survey pegged her margin at 15 and an internal Democratic poll -- released on Monday -- said the same.

But, the level of activity from Democrats in the past 24 hours -- the ad buy by the DSCC, the decision to send two senior-level staff to the state and a series of fundraising emails from Democratic figures from President Barack Obama to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry -- suggest that the party is very concerned about the contest.


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