Shock senate defeat endangers Obama reforms

Barack Obama’s health care reforms were in danger today after Republican Scott Brown captured the US Senate seat held by liberal champion Ted Kennedy for nearly 50 years, in a massive blow to the president.

Mr Brown’s defeat of once-favoured Martha Coakley for the Massachusetts seat was a stunning embarrassment for the White House after Mr Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to save her candidacy.

Ms Coakley called Mr Brown, conceding the race, and Mr Obama talked to both politicians, congratulating them on the race.

Ms Coakley said the president told her: “We can’t win them all.”

But even before the polls closed, Obama administration officials and Ms Coakley’s supporters were blaming each other.

Her defeat signalled big political problems for the president’s party in November when House of Representatives, Senate and gubernatorial – governorship - candidates are up for election.

But more immediately, Mr Brown, 50, will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the Republicans to block the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda.

Democrats desperately needed Ms Coakley to win to secure a 60th vote to thwart Republican procedural manoeuvres to block votes on legislation.

Mr Brown led by 52% to 47% with all but 3% of precincts counted today.

The election transformed reliably Democratic Massachusetts into a battleground state. One day before the first anniversary of Mr Obama’s swearing-in, it played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, industry bail-outs, exploding government budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.

Considered a long-shot for weeks, Mr Brown, a little-known state senator, rode that wave of bitterness to draw even with Ms Coakley, the state attorney general, in the final stretch of the campaign.

Surveys showed his candidacy energised Republicans while attracting disappointed Democrats and independents uneasy with where they felt the US was heading.

“I have no interest in sugar-coating what happened in Massachusetts,” said Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the head of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee.

“There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now. Americans are understandably impatient.”

Mr Brown will finish the late Mr Kennedy’s unexpired term, facing re-election in 2012. Mr Brown will be the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in 30 years.

Administration officials privately accused Ms Coakley of a poorly-run campaign, playing down the notion that Mr Obama or a toxic political landscape had much to do with the outcome.

Ms Coakley’s supporters, in turn, blamed that very environment, saying her lead dropped significantly after the Senate passed a health care bill shortly before Christmas and after the Christmas Day attempted airline bombing that Mr Obama himself said showed a failure of his administration.

Wall Street watched closely. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 1% and analysts attributed the increase to hopes the election would make it harder for Mr Obama to make his changes to health care.

That eased investor concerns that profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer.

Across Massachusetts, voters who had been bombarded with phone calls and dizzied with non-stop campaign commercials for Coakley and Brown gave a fitting turnout despite intermittent snow and rain state-wide.

National issues including health care and the federal budget deficits were on voters’ minds.

“We don’t want health care just for the rich and the middle class. We need it for everyone,” said Democrat Neicei Degan, 82, who voted for Ms Coakley.

Fears about spending drove Karla Bunch, 49, to vote for Mr Brown. “It’s time for the country, for the taxpayers, to take back their money,” she said.

Ms Coakley, stunned to see a double-digit lead evaporate in recent weeks, had counted on unions and reawakened Democrats to turn out on her behalf and preserve a seat Mr Kennedy and his brother, President John F Kennedy, held for more than 50 years. The senator died in August of brain cancer.

Mr Obama has made overhauling the US health care system, which leaves nearly 50 million people uninsured, his top domestic priority. Mr Kennedy was a long-time champion of the cause.

Democratic congressional leaders had put on a show of resolve before the results were announced.

“Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we will have quality, affordable health care for all Americans, and we will have it soon,” said House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Addressing an exuberant victory celebration, Mr Brown declared he was ``ready to go to Washington without delay'' as the crowd chanted ``Seat him now''.

Democrats indicated they would, deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to block Mr Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the health care plan he has promised to oppose.