GOP win leaves Democrats shaken in Massachusetts

Scott Brown, a little-known Republican state senator, rode an old pickup truck and a growing sense of unease among independent voters to an extraordinary upset on Tuesday night when he was elected to fill the Senate seat that was long held by Edward M Kennedy in the overwhelmingly Democratic state of Massachusetts.

Brown defeated Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, who had been considered a favourite to win just over a month ago after she easily won the Democratic primary. With all precincts counted, Brown had 52 per cent of the vote to Coakley’s 47 per cent.

“Tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Brown told his supporters, standing in front of a backdrop that said “The People’s Seat”.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

Edward Kennedy, `Lion of United States Senate', dead

Senator Edward M Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the US Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77.

The death of Kennedy, who had been battling brain cancer, was announced Wednesday morning in a statement by the Kennedy family, which was already mourning the death of the senator’s sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver two weeks earlier.

President Barack Obama, whose nomination as the Democratic candidate for the top post was endorsed by Kennedy in 2008, said he was “heartbroken” at the loss of a friend.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com