MASSACHUSETTS SENATE - PRIMARY VOTE TODAY - AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  Voters in Massachusetts vote in primaries today to select candidates to run in the January 19th special election.  The winner in January will succeed the late Edward M. Kennedy.  CNN reports:

A University of New Hampshire poll conducted for The Boston Globe in late November showed state Attorney Gen. Martha Coakley leading her closest rival, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, by 21 percentage points. Of those surveyed by UNH, 43 percent chose Coakley, 22 percent picked Capuano, 15 percent selected Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca and 6 percent said nonprofit executive Alan Khazei was their choice. The UNH/Globe poll is consistent with surveys conducted by other academic institutions.

The Republican candidates, state Sen. Scott Brown and attorney Jack E. Robinson, were not included in the poll. But Brown, who was endorsed by the Globe and The Boston Herald, is expected to win the GOP primary.

COMMENT:  There is a depressing sideshow going on in lefty, trendy, Massachusetts politics:  The Democratic candidates are doing back flips to distance themselves from President Obama's surge in Afghanistan.  The leading candidates have all come out against it, the better to win Cambridge, home of Harvard, and the Democratic equivalent of Mecca.

December 8, 2009