Scott Brown at the Moran Square Diner and the Race for Senate

The Moran Square Diner has been a Fitch­burg fix­ture for decades host

host­ing locals. Years ago Sen­a­tor Edward Kennedy put away a Cheese­burger and a dog at this cor­ner booth dur­ing his visit.

With elec­tion day 24 hours away Sen­a­tor Scott Brown Bus came to Fitchburg

and after speak­ing to the crowd

sat in that very same booth

[cap­tion id=“attachment_41890” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] The Kennedy booth becomes the People’s booth[/caption]

greet­ing vot­ers and talk­ing to peo­ple at lunch turn­ing the “Kennedy” seat into the “Peo­ple” seat as he seeks re-​election and a full six year term to rep­re­sent the peo­ple of Massachusetts.

It’s not sur­pris­ing he would find him­self in Fitch­burg, and not just for the incred­i­ble break­fasts and lunch that owner Chris Gian­netti has been serv­ing to hun­gry cus­tomers for years.

or the hot choco­late that his daugh­ter enjoyed after a brief interview:

good rea­sons thought they are.

It was because Fitch­burg was one of the key cities that took Brown over the top, shock­ing pun­dits nation­ally and locally with his spe­cial elec­tion win in Jan­u­ary 2010 which was the har­bin­ger of the elec­toral pound­ing the left received 10 months. Inspir­ing GOP chal­lengers such as Jon Gol­nik run­ning in dis­tricts like Ma-​3 where once the left once ran unopposed.

His 2010 vic­tory remains a dri­ver as the nation heads for the polls in 2012.

[cap­tion id=“attachment_41892” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] Gail Huff, wife of Sen­a­tor Scott Brown greets a voter[/caption]

It’s not an easy road. Incum­bency is one of the few advan­tages Sen­a­tor Brown brings to the race in 2012, this time around. Mass­a­chu­setts remains a deep blue state (+25 reg­is­tra­tion advan­tage for democ­rats), instead of a spe­cial elec­tion with only his race to be decided he faces democ­rats above and below his spot on the ticket all try­ing to drive the faith­ful to the polls and finally he faces in Eliz­a­beth War­ren a per­son with a national fol­low­ing and rep­u­ta­tion and mil­lions of dol­lars to back her from some of the biggest donors the Demo­c­rat party has.

[cap­tion id=“attachment_41893” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] GOP can­di­date for Ma-​3 Jon Gol­nik greets vot­ers in Fitch­burg before the Arrival of Sen­a­tor Brown[/caption]

These are tough hills to climb for Sen­a­tor Brown and a source of com­fort for Eliz­a­beth Warren

But alas for Pro­fes­sor War­ren, Sen­a­tor Brown coun­ters with two other advan­tages she can­not match for all the Hol­ly­wood dol­lars she may have to spend. He comes bear­ing a record as one of the most mod­er­ate Sen­a­tors in the con­gress at a time where grid­lock is a dirty word and “bi-​partisan” is the favorite phrase of the media. He spoke of this in his ini­tial remarks:

It’s very hard to con­demn your oppo­nent as an “extrem­ist” when he votes against his own party 40% of the time.

Sec­ondly there is Sen­a­tor Brown demeanor.

Sen­a­tor Brown has a well-​earned rep­u­ta­tion for lis­ten­ing to the vot­ers no mat­ter if they agree with him or no and being there when the vot­ers need him. For years peo­ple on the right who won­dered how Ted Kennedy kept his seat never tak­ing into account his leg­endary rep­u­ta­tion for con­stituent ser­vices. It is no acci­dent that after being elected Sen­a­tor Brown retained a fair amount of that Kennedy staff and shares that same rep­u­ta­tion for lis­ten­ing to and tak­ing care of the vot­ers who sent him to Washington.

[cap­tion id=“attachment_41897” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] Sen­a­tor Brown with a fam­ily at Moran Square Diner[/caption]

This is why every poll of vot­ers in the state dur­ing this race shows him draw­ing Democ­rats in num­bers that no Repub­li­can in the coun­try could ever dream of and why Fitch­burg a city where, as Coun­selor at large Mar­cus DiNa­tale notes, Democ­rats have a 35 point reg­is­tra­tion advan­tage can be one of the cor­ner­stones of Sen­a­tor Brown’s re-​election plans.

National Democ­rats con­sid­ered this race their linch­pin to retain the US sen­ate in 2012, But as the lat­est polls and Sen­a­tor Brown’s dogged cam­paign shows mil­lions of dol­lars from the biggest elite donors from around the coun­try will be hard pressed to counter a hand shaken in per­son and an ear will­ing to lis­ten to a voter, any voter no mat­ter what the party affiliation.

Democ­rats were shocked at Scott Brown tak­ing “the Kennedy Seat” but as Sen­a­tor Brown fin­ished his meal in the booth once graced by his illus­tri­ous pre­de­ces­sor the left’s shock in 2010 is slow­ing becom­ing their res­ig­na­tion of 2012.