Brown Takes Early Lead Over Coakley in Massachusetts Senate Race

Massachusett Senate Race Result – Republican Scott Brown has taken the early lead in the Massachusetts special election, an unexpectedly competitive contest that could have significant implications for President Obama’s agenda in Washington.

With 18 percent of precincts reporting, early returns show Brown leading Democrat Martha Coakley 52-47 percent.

Brown’s late-in-the-game surge in the state has commanded the attention of the Democratic Party establishment, which dispatched top officials over the past week to try to keep the seat formerly held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in Democratic hands. Democrat Martha Coakley, the state attorney general, was thought to be a shoo-in for the seat until Brown starting gaining rapidly in the polls.

Other preliminary numbers showed Brown faring better than Republican John McCain did in Massachusetts in the 2008 presidential election. Data from three cities showed him running anywhere between 14 and 25 points higher than McCain did. He needs to run about 15 points higher than McCain across the board to take the election.

Rasmussen Reports released some data from its election night survey of 1,000 voters that had positive signs for Coakley. The survey found Coakley had a slight edge, 47-to-41 percent, among those who decided how they would vote in the past few days. Rasmussen reported she had a “big advantage” among those who decided who to vote for more than a month ago. Read more

Fort Hood Shooting by Army Doctor Leaves 12 Dead, Arm

Twelve people have been killed and 31 wounded in a Fort Hood shooting spree at a Texas military base in a murderous rampage that officials believe was carried out by an Army psychiatrist.

The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Nadal Malik Hasan. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, told Fox News that military sources informed her that the gunman was about to be deployed to Iraq. Sources tell ABC News that this would have been his first deployment.

The shooter was killed and two other suspects, who are also soldiers, have been apprehended, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone said.

Hasan allegedly opened fire and killed 11 people on the base before he was shot dead, bringing the total number of fatalities to 12.

The general said there were “eyewitness accounts of more than one shooter,” and the others were tracked to an adjacent facility. Read more

New York Election Results: Updates On NY-23 Race

The nation focused on a rural swath of northern New York state Tuesday in an unusually relevant special congressional election in which the Democrat sought to exploit a split in Republican loyalties and recapture a seat held for decades by the GOP.

The race started about five weeks ago with three candidates and is ending with two — Democrat Bill Owens and surprise contender Doug Hoffman, a member of the state Conservative Party.

Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly quit the race over the weekend and backed Owens after Hoffman’s supporters accused her of being too liberal for the largely Republican district because of her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Read more