Probably shouldn't have started this thread in hindsight, but being as though the cat is out of the bag, so to speak:
Watching the late news and reading same on line, it wasn't purely a party line thing with voters in MA, but rather a mixture.
Far to many in MA felt the Democrats in their state have been playing fast and loose, and the stunt pulled after Senator Kennedy's death, reversing a law they themselves (and the late Mr. Kennedy wished for at the time), put into place to prevent a governor from appointing a senate replacement capped things off.
There is also the simple fact many both in MA and elsewhere feel that Mr. Brown ran a better race than Mrs. Coakley. While the former busied himself criss crossing the state, Mrs. Coakley spent her time meeting with the established MA politcal machine. Mrs. Coakely also spoke rather low of going out and "shaking hands/meeting people", instead preferring to bask in her role as appointed heir by the widow Kennedy, and the Kennedy family. In short Mr. Brown seemed to work really hard at the race, while Mrs. Coakley seemed to take every thing including winning as her proper due. It was only in the final few weeks that, after dismissing Mr. Brown so forth, finall woke up and smelt the coffee.
Oh and another thing, though it is not often mentioned in polite society, more than a few persons seem to take offense in the Kennedy family, and in particular his relic acting as if that senate seat was their own person property. One knows the Kennedy family like to be associated with "American royalty", but there isn't such a thing.
L.