In the final analysis, this was a race that was essentially frozen from its inception. And as a result, Ted Kennedy's successor in the United States Senate is likely to be the first woman elected to that chamber from the state of Massachusetts:
Martha Coakley, a no-nonsense lawyer who has worked more than two decades in law enforcement and rose to become Massachusetts attorney general, won the Democratic primary election tonight in the race to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by the late Edward M. Kennedy.
The final vote tally pretty closely tracked most public polling in the race, which gave Coakley a lead of around 15-20 points over her leading challenger, Boston Congressman Michael Capuano.
MA-Senate Primary Results--Democratic Primary--99% of Pcts Rptg
Martha Coakley: 47
Michael Capuano: 28
Alan Khazei: 13
Stephen Pagliuca: 12
Republican state Senator Scott Brown annihilated perennial candidate Jack E. Robinson by an 89%-11% margin in a GOP primary where the turnout was even lighter than the low-turnout Democratic primary (roughly 170,000 people voted in the GOP primary, versus 650,000 in the Democratic primary).
Coakley has been widely favored over Brown in every general election trial heat to date. The general election will be held on January 19th.