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What if Martha Coakley had won the 2010 Massachusetts special election?

Admittedly, this is a tall order given the outcome. But perhaps not impossible given that polling showed her ahead until late in the race and the result more or less matched what the polling predicted.

The obvious solution is no Affordable Care Act.

But there are other ideas that come to mind.

One is that Coakley might not have had to face Scott Brown at all.

Andrew Card-George W. Bush's former chief of staff considered running for the seat-and Brown was clear that he wouldn't run if Card did.

Perhaps I'm misreading Massachusetts-and the reason for Brown's victory.

But my impression is that with Massachusetts being Massachusetts-not just any Republican could have won.

Card would have been associated with a tremendously unpopular administration. Running against him might have allowed Coakley to campaign against George W. Bush's record.

Card might wind up being less effective on the campaign trail than Brown was.

In addition to perhaps running against Card rather than Brown had ACA passed sooner Brown would not have been able to claim that a vote for him would kill reform. If for example Olympia Snowe voted in favor there's a possibility the law would have passed in full before January 19th.

Perhaps that by itself would have sufficiently dampened enthusiasm.

Or perhaps there are more Coakley specific reasons she lost.

Finally-in theory Ted Kennedy could have left the Senate earlier such that the special election was held in conjunction with the 2008 Presidential election.

If possible I'd prefer a Coakley wins and ACA passes scenario-because I'm interested in how keeping the Massachusetts seat effects policy after 2010-which means as much as possible I would prefer 2008-2009 to be as close to historical reality as possible.

Assuming Coakley can actually win-what does 2010 look like with a longer lived Democratic supermajority? What are the implications on liberal politics if Elizabeth Warren isn't in the Senate?
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