In primaries next Tuesday, Massachusetts voters will choose the Democratic and Republican nominees to run in January’s special election for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
Four Democrats and two Republicans have taken the field. Of the Democrats — Attorney General Martha Coakley, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, City Year co-founder Alan Khazei and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca — Coakley is the clear front-runner, up 15 points over her closest opponent in a recent Rasmussen poll.
The poll showed Coakley 36 percent of the vote compared to Capuano’s 21 percent. Khazei and Pagliuca each had 14 percent.
But Capuano has garnered some big name endorsements, including those of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis and the Boston Herald. Khazei, whose organization promotes service among young people, won the endorsement of the Boston Globe.
(Kennedy’s family has not made any endorsements in the race.)
Capuano, who’s served in the House since 1999, has tried to close the gap by attacking Coakley for skipping debates (she’s still been to several) and for defending the Patriot Act in 2005.
On the money side, Pagliuca has spent the most, dishing out $5.6 million — $5.4 of which is his own money — as of Nov. 18. Coakley has raised $4.2 million and spent $2.3 million, and Khazei has raised $2.3 million and spent $1.7 million. The other candidates, who haven’t filed since Sept. 30, have each raised less than a million.
ActBlue, a PAC that donates to Democratic candidates, has been the biggest donor to both Coakley and Pagliuca. Coakley has also gotten cash from Emily’s List, which donates to pro-choice women candidates, and several law firms. Capuano’s biggest donors are Triumvirate Environmental, a hazardous waste management firm, Suffolk Construction and the National Beer Wholesalers Association, but on the whole the individual donations have been much smaller than Coakley’s.
On the Republican side, state Sen. Scott Brown is pitted against attorney Jack E. Robinson. Brown, a lieutenant colonel in the Mass. National Guard is by far the front-runner and has been endorsed by the Globe and the Herald, and has received $4,500 from former Gov. Mitt Romney’s PAC.
Robinson, a progressive Republican who supports gay marriage, is by far the underdog, with little name recognition and a pair of scandals surrounding a drunk-driving arrest and an ex’s restraining order. Some of his ideas — such as holding peace talks in Paris with the Taliban and Afghan government — put him outside the mainstream. He has unsuccessfully run for Kennedy’s seat, and other public offices.
But both Republicans are underdogs in this highly Democratic state. A recent debate between the GOP-ers drew only 60 audience members, compared to a Democratic one that drew more than 500 people.
And Rasmussen, which released a poll for the Democratic primary, did not do the same for the Republicans.
The general election for the seat, currently held by interim Sen. Paul Kirk (D), will be held Jan. 9. The winner will hold the office until January 2013.
