Massachusetts Voters Backed Brown to Show Opposition to Democratic Agenda, Poll Says
Bruce Drake
Nearly two-thirds of those who voted for Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race said their vote was at least in part to make clear their opposition to the Democratic agenda in Washington.
But three-quarters say they want to see Brown work with Democrats to get GOP ideas into legislation such as the health care reform bill, according to a Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public health poll conducted after the election. (Read the story; see the full poll results).
The poll said 63 percent of those who voted believe the country is seriously off-track and two-thirds of them backed Brown.
Sentiment has also changed since 2008, when President Obama was elected, on how much the government should do to solve the nation's problems. In 2008, 63 percent said the government should do more, a number that has fallen to 50 percent. In the Bay State Senate race, Democrat Martha Coakley won 70 percent of those who said government should do more, but she was drawing that support from a smaller pool than two years ago.
The health care proposals advocated by Obama and congressional Democrats drew support from only 43 percent of Massachusetts voters. Eight in 10 of those who backed Brown opposed them.