In a dramatic upset that will end Democrats' super majority in the Senate, Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley to claim the seat held by the late Ted Kennedy for more than 46 years.
Brown's victory makes him the 41st Republican in the Senate, meaning Democrats will no longer be able to prevent a Republican filibuster -- a major complication for President Obama's agenda and health care legislation currently pending in Congress.
Brown has said he opposes Democrats' health care overhaul working its way through Congress, and some Democrats are even acknowledging Brown's win could imperil passage of other big ticket items, including climate change legislation, regulatory reforms and a banking industry overhaul. There has so far been little or no bipartisanship on such major issues.
Obama himself acknowledged the stakes in his stump speech for Coakley in Boston on Sunday, saying "a lot of these measures are going to rest on one vote in the U.S. Senate." With that vote now in Republican hands, Democrats are experiencing growing concern about the future of their majorities in Congress in 2010.
"I think what's happened in the last few weeks here is a wakeup call for the Democrats both here in Massachusetts and around the country," Phil Johnston, a former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, told ABC's "Top Line" today. Obama, who has been "both surprised and frustrated" with how hotly contested the Bay State special election became, recognizes the "tremendous amount of upset and anger" among voters about "where we are economically," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier today."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republican-...tory?id=9602776