In her Washington Post column today, Kathleen Parker takes a look at what is happening in the campaign for the special election to be held in Massachusetts on January 19th.  This is the election that is being held to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat. 

The candidates in the special election are State Senator Scott Brown,  Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Joseph L. Kennedy (no relation to the family of the late Senator Ted Kennedy).  Once Martha Coakley won the Democrat primary, it was assumed that she would easily be elected to the Senate.  That may actually happen, but Scott Brown has closed the gap between the two candidates to single digits.  Scott Brown was thirty one points down in November 2009; he is now down approximately nine points.  Momentum in political campaigns is a tricky thing, and right now the Scott Brown campaign has it.

Ms. Parker concludes:

“A Brown victory in one of the nation’s bluest states would be as surprising as the rise of a young black senator to the presidency in 2008. It also would be a stunning referendum on the Obama administration. A phenomenon, if you will.”

Scott Brown is not a perfect candidate, but I believe he would be an independent voice trying to represent the people who elected him.  That would be a pleasant change from many of the people currently serving in Congress.