Election Of Brown Should Send Message To All Incumbents

This is all commentary, so you can take it or leave it.

Both sides of the political spectrum will be spending the rest of the day spinning the recent election of Scott Brown to the Senate from the state of Massachusetts in the best possible light. The conventional wisdom seems to be that this was some sort of repudiation of the Democrats.

Here is a news flash for all of the incumbents. The actions taken by the voters of Massachusetts sends a far larger picture. Granted Martha Coakley was not an incumbent, but she is the closet to it, being the anointed candidate to succeed the late Edward Kennedy. Voters all across the country are simply fed up with the way our politicians act, regardless of which side of the political spectrum they are on.

Phrases that people are tired of hearing are things like business as usual to describe the manner in which congress gets legislation crafted and passed. The examples of the Louisiana Purchase with Landrieu and the Cornhusker Deal with Nelson have gotten the electorates' attention. What people are noticing though is that it isn't only on the Democrat side. We watched Republicans Olympia Snowe get wined and dined and we have other members of congress hinting publicly that their vote too could be bought with the right bribe.

That is not what people want. They want to know that the people they have elected are going to Washington to work for them, and not the party affiliation behind their name.

No, if I was an incumbent I would take the results of this election in Massachusetts as a wake up call. The polls show that the electorate is still evenly divided in the Bay State, but underneath it is the sense that they voted for the candidate who seemed to maintain his contact with the people.

There are grassroots efforts on both sides to challenge all incumbents in the upcoming primary season, and just like the AP reports any bad economic news with the adjective unexpectedly, they will probably be looking for similar words to describe the results from some of these primary races.

Sorry to rain on your parade if you view this as some sort of endorsement of the Republican party, I just think it is preview of coming attractions, and any incumbent that appears to be disconnected from his home district had better start packing his bags cause I think the folks back home are fed up.

Congratulations to Scott Brown for running a good campaign, now drive that truck down to D.C. and live up to the principles you espoused on the campaign trail.