Massachusetts Senate Race: view from the trenches

Here in the Western suburbs of Boston there's been a heavy turnout. #2 Son and I took the dogs out for their daily Constitutional, and found a mini-crowd of people on the town green, outside the polling station. I stopped by to chat with them, and do a totally non-scientific poll.

There were five registered voters (plus a child) with Scott Brown signs. Three were registered Republican; two were independent (technically "Unenrolled" in Massachusetts parlance). Two people had Martha Coakley signs, one registered Democrat, and one who was not a citizen but was participating in the process anyway. Cool.

My entirely unscientific poll question: It's obvious who you want to win. Who do you think is going to win?

Unsurprisingly, it was 5-2 (Brown-Coakley). What was interesting was why people thought the way they did. On the Brown for Senate side, people talked about how much they liked Brown as a candidate, how much energy they were seeing, and how much they couldn't stand Martha Coakley. On the Coakley for Senate side, the discussion was about policy: health care, reproductive rights, etc. Talking with the Coakley supporters, neither candidate came up in conversation (at least that I remember).

Everyone was friendly, polite and cheerful, to me and to each other. Cool, again.

Nobody knew how things were going in the election, other than there was pretty heavy turnout over at the polling station. I passed on what little I knew, but it wasn't much other than speculation. Lots (I mean lots) of people were honking their horns as they drove by. Not sure if this was for Brown or Coakley, but the Brown supporters had a slightly better position right on the corner, and were kind of blocking the Coakley sign (at least from some angles). I don't think that this was dirty pool; I saw Brown supporters there early in the day, when there were only two of them (no Coakley presence), so they presumably grabbed the choice corner location.

What does this mean in the Grand Scheme of things? Nothing. We'll all know more in about 3 hours. I have to say, that I'm sick of what the national political debate has become in this country, but in my town it's very refreshing indeed to see people participating but still treating each other respectfully. More, please.