On the eve of the Massachusetts special election to replace John Kerry in the United States Senate, former Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) stumped for Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez at a rally in Quincy. Most polls show Democratic candidate Ed Markey, a 37 year incumbent Congressman, holds a comfortable lead over Gomez.
But predicting the outcome of special elections is prone to error, especially when voter turnout is low. That is expected to be the case in Massachusetts tomorrow, where voters seem to be more interested in seeing if the Boston Bruins can beat the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals than in who will become the new junior senator from Massachusetts.
Brown, who defeated Martha Coakley in a special election in January 2010 but lost to Elizabeth Warren in the general election of 2012, told the crowd that gathered at the Common Market in Quincy, “I guess the election is over. Is that right? Of course, it is not over.”
Brown told the audience of hopeful Gomez supporters not to be swayed by polls that show Gomez behind anywhere from 10 to 20 points. “They are trying to suppress the numbers, obviously,” he said. “It’s over. He is up 10, 20, 100, whatever. It’s the same stuff they did before.”
It was the first time Brown and Gomez appeared together at a campaign event.
Gomez followed Brown by hitting on his familiar theme that Markey is a Washington insider who can not get anything done.
“It’s time for Congressman Markey to get out of the way,” he concluded.
Markey has outspent Gomez by a 3 to 1 margin, most of that money going to negative advertising that has cut into Gomez’s approval rating with voters. According to FEC reports, Markey had raised $8 million as of June 5, while Gomez had raised only $3.3 million.