Legal Commentary

15%

By Eugene Volokh

That strikes me as the most interesting (tentative) number coming out of the Brown/Coakley race ? Massachusetts went 62%-36% for Obama in 2008, and now, ?With more than three-quarters of results counted, [Republican Scott] Brown had 52 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.? That?s a 16% gain for Republicans, and a 15% loss for Democrats; let?s call it 15%.

Naturally, Obama wasn?t just a Democrat, and Brown isn?t just a Republican. Still, the 15% seems to be something of a measure of the falloff in the Democrats? support from November 2008 to now, at least in otherwise deep blue Massachusetts.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).