The Senatorial Election

On Tuesday, January 19, the race for Ted Kennedy's vacated seat in the US Senate came to a very surprising conclusion. Republican Scott Brown defeated the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, to shake up the power structure in Washington. I am not from Massachusetts; I hail from New York. I wasn't very aware of the issues surrounding the candidates, but I followed the election on Twitter and on Boston.com.

The networks that I was watching during the election (MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, etc.) were only showing the latest results coming in from different districts. They didn't show much commentary from the general public. The Twitter-verse, however, was buzzing with different news and opinions. Not only were they offering the latest voting results, but giving their views as well. Those with conservative views were very excited, and usually ended their tweets with exclamation points and optimism. Liberals were very nervous and skeptical, already showing frustration with how they felt Coakley hurt herself in the election.

Boston.com had a live forum set up four days before the election even began. People were commenting and discussing their views early and often, continuing to do so throughout the election. The site also had readers reporting in about the polling stations in their town. People chimed in about who they voted for and how crowded the station was. The web site also followed Tweets from the candidates, with a widget set up on the page. It was a site filled with user-generated material that helped me follow the election more easily.

The Tweets about Scott Brown still keep flying on Twitter, and my favorite one of late:

"chalupatime Scott Brown is going on Leno, Scott Brown supports backstabbers."