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Lt. Col. @ScottBrownMA: Absenteers Affirm 58-42; Coakley Cornered Over Lawsuits; SEIU Comes Out? in Support

By Phil

Via RealClearPolitics:

Coakley loses one-in-five Democrats to Brown, while the Republican state senator has 94 percent of Republicans behind him. Brown has a commanding 58-37 advantage among ?unenrolled? voters, mainly independents and those who prefer not to register affiliation with the major parties.

A trend worth noting as well: 9 percent of voters say they?d already cast a ballot through absentee voting. Brown leads Coakley among this group 58-42.

The lawsuits are now getting started. The sad part about all three of them — the third one listed below being threatened in the event that the State Senator is elected but certification is stalled — could have very easily been prevented.

First, from the “Doesn’t Your Media Company Have Attorneys That Inspect This Stuff Before Production?” department, Prof. Jacobson reported (via The Boston Herald) that United Parcel Service is demanding that the Coakley campaign stop distributing the following pamphlet:

From the Herald:

Shipping giant UPS isn?t amused by a Democratic Party campaign pamphlet attacking Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown that plays off the company?s slogan ?What can Brown do for you??

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, known for its ubiquitous brown trucks, demanded yesterday that the Massachusetts Democratic Party, which is listed as paying for the pamphlet, stop distributing it.

The mailer asks ?What can Brown do to you?? It shows Scott Brown dressed up as a UPS driver and says, ?He can reward corporations that ship your job overseas just like George W. Bush.?

Secondly and significantly more disturbing, GatewayPundit reports that the Brown campaign has filed a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democrat Party concerning this mailer (here’s the media advisory email sent out earlier today):

The Washington Post explains the issue:

Republican Scott Brown charged Saturday that a Democratic mailing against his U.S. Senate campaign violates a Massachusetts law prohibiting false statements against a political candidate.

The cover of a four-page mailer sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party says, ?1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown wants hospitals to turn them all away.?

Brown is a state senator, and in 2005 he filed an amendment that would have allowed workers at religious hospitals or with firmly held religious beliefs to avoid giving emergency contraception to rape victims. The amendment failed, and Brown voted in favor of a bill allowing the contraception. He also voted to override a veto issued by his fellow Republican, then-Gov. Mitt Romney.

From the presser:

MyFoxBoston spells out the potential penalty:

A section of the Massachusetts General Laws prohibits false statements against political candidates that are designed or tend ?to aid or to injure or defeat such candidate,? with a penalty of to $1,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

Brown campaign legal counsel Daniel Winslow said, ?People can shade things and spin things, but it has to have some kernel of truth.?

Brown is locked in a dead heat with Democrat Martha Coakley, the state?s attorney general, in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Independent Joseph L. Kennedy, who is not related to the famed Kennedy family, is also on Tuesday?s ballot.

Winslow called on the Democratic Party and the Coakley campaign to disavow the mailer?s claim. The Brown campaign plans to wait until Tuesday, the next business day, before seeking a legal remedy, he said.

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Reaction comes from the Plum Line and Politico, as well as from commentator Taylor Marsh:

I am disgusted and I thought they couldn?t top the World Trade Center gaffe. Into this Pres. Obama will walk tomorrow….
Now, I love a good political fight, all things fair and all, but someone should tell Democrats that you draw the line on using rape victims in a mailer. Or maybe that?s just my delicate sensibilities.
If this is what is being sent out by Democrats in Massachusetts to obviously help Martha Coakley bring affluent and suburban women, regardless of parties, to the polls on Tuesday. She?s finished, whether she wins or not.
Let?s just hope the White House had nothing to do with this, not even giving a nod, though I wouldn?t put anything past David Axelrod.

And thirdly, WorldNetDaily is reporting that the Gun Owners of America organization is allegedly threatening to file suit if Mr. Brown wins and his certification is stalled in order to help advance healthcare:

Lawyers are being positioned even over the weekend to file a legal action quickly in support of the GOP candidate in the Massachusetts special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy should he succeed in defeating a hand-picked Democratic successor.

There is concern that since a victory by Republican Scott Brown over Attorney General Martha Coakley in the battle to replace Kennedy would threaten President Obama’s health care plan in the U.S. Senate ? Brown has promised to be a key vote against the plan ? Democrats in power would delay certifying the election and getting him seated in the Senate.

Polls heading into the weekend show the surge of support for Brown is continuing, to the point that President Obama has tentatively scheduled a trip to Massachusetts to try to salvage Coakley’s campaign.

Officials with Gun Owners of America aren’t waiting. They announced today that they have instructed their attorneys to “prepare a lawsuit to force the Senate to seat Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown immediately should he, as seems increasingly likely, succeed in his Jan. 19 bid for the Senate seat.”

The statement from Gun Owners executive officer Larry Pratt said, “Recent polls showing Brown pulling even with anti-gun zealot Martha Coakley have led to threats by current placeholder Paul Kirk and Democratic operatives to block the will of the people of Massachusetts until the Senate has adopted the ObamaCare bill.”

Who’da thought union members would be rallying in support of a Republican? Apparently, these SEIU folks are (h/t RedMassGroup):

Even more pictures and videos at FlemingAndHayes.com, including the following mock anti-Brown ad that, really, based on the above, the Coakley campaign has effectively reduced itself to being the safest ad that it could run (!!!):

More campaign pictures and observations can be found via Prof. Jacobson, The Boston Herald, and Eric Odom.

And regarding the talk of reconciliation for the healthcare bill in the Senate should Mr. Brown win Tuesday, RedState.com calls bluff on that one.

See my highlighted coverage under the Category, MA Senate.

-Phil

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Photo courtesy BostonHerald.com

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on January 16, 2010 (boomark / email).