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Republican Wins US Senate Seat of Late Liberal Democrat Kennedy

   VOA News 19 January 2010

   In  a stunning upset, a Republican in Massachusetts has apparently won
   the  U.S.  Senate  seat  held  for nearly a half-century by one of the
   nation's most liberal lawmakers, the late Edward "Ted" Kennedy.
   Even  though  all  the  votes  have  not yet been counted in Tuesday's
   election  to  fill  Kennedy's  seat, results indicate Republican state
   Senator  Scott Brown has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, the state's
   attorney general.
   Late  Tuesday,  Coakley told supporters she telephoned her opponent to
   offer him congratulations.
   The  apparent  loss  by  the  once-favored  Coakley  could  signal big
   problems  for  President  Barack  Obama's  Democratic Party later this
   year,  when U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the
   ballot nationwide.
   But  a  more  immediate  problem  for the president is that Brown will
   become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow
   the  minority  party  to block the president's health care legislation
   and the rest of his agenda.
   Democrats   needed   Coakley   to  win  in  order  to  maintain  their
   super-majority  and  thwart  Republican  procedural  maneuvers used to
   block votes on legislation.

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