Ugh Massachusetts!

So wrote my daughter this morning from France. News of yesterday's special election for the US Senate had been prominent even there.

There are undoubtedly many reasons why an obscure Republican state senator is now a US Senator from the most Democratic of states. Suffice it for now to say that Martha Coakley failed to win over the independent voters (a majority of voters in Massachusetts now belong to neither party).

I'm sorry that the number of female US Senators did not increase to 18. I had hoped that Coakley would have provided some support to Maine's two Senators, if only by being a woman, as they struggle with being moderates. Perhaps in an odd way (Scott Brown is really quite conservative, and a bit of a lightweight, and until yesterday considerably less famous than his American Idol daughter) this election will force Senators Snow and Collins back to the hot seat, especially in healthcare reform. I think Mainers would appreciate a return to politics of people, not politics of party.