Mixed signals out of Bay State special election

Maybe it was the mistake of referring to Curt Schilling, a beloved former Red Sox pitcher, as a Yankee fan that cost Martha Coakley a Senate seat Tuesday.

But more likely it was the broader failure of her campaign, lousy advertisements and a lack of charisma, which gave Republicans the opening to take the same Senate seat that liberal lion Sen. Ted Kennedy held for nearly half a century.

Scott Brown, a Republican state legislator, will be the next senator from Massachusetts. The election is a good sign for Republicans all over the country in 2010, but local factors played a big role in this election’s outcome.

For eager conservatives winning the same seat Kennedy once held is a sign that nation is rebelling against President Obama and Democrats and are making a big shift to the right. Isn’t this what people said about this last election?

The conventional wisdom then was that people were so angry and fed up with the disastrous Bush years, and the Republicans in his administration, that the country was seeing a major liberal shift. The conventional wisdom now is that people are fed up with Obama, already, and are voting Republican.

In reality, tough economic times tend to give voters a pragmatic distaste for whoever is in office.

But, for now, that is good for Republicans. The Massachusetts election will help convince more Republicans to run and more Democrats with tough seats to retire in 2010.

But was the election a referendum on health care? The evidence isn’t that convincing.

A big local factor in this election was that Massachusetts already has its own universal health care system so voters wouldn’t benefit from the reform bill making its way through Congress.

According to Rasmussen exit polls, people who voted for Coakley were more likely to say health care was their biggest issue.

This will make passing health care much harder. Democrats can try to pass a bill before Brown takes his seat or pass the Senate version of the bill unchanged.

But if the bill does fall apart, the irony will be that it was due to the Republican who filled the former seat of one of health care reform’s greatest champions.

That pill will certainly a be tough one for Democrats to swallow.