Sleeping through the election

Two quick hits on yesterday’s election. One’s obvious. The geographical coverage of Brown’s victory is stunning. Coakley took western Mass, the tip of the Cape and most cities, but the rest of the state (again, the rest of the state went for Brown). Bad news for the Governor (no, scratch that – incumbents generally) with the 60+% of independents going for Brown.

Second thing that strikes me from the data is that the cities may have gone for Coakley, but they really sat this one out. Voter turnout as a whole was high, and averaged around 60% outside the cities. But it was only in the high 20s to mid 40s in the cities.

Boston 43%
Chelsea 37%
Fall River 38%
Holyoke 36%
Lawrence 28%
Lowell 38%
Lynn 38%
New Bedford 35%
Pittsfield 45%
Springfield 32%
Worcester 42%

Lowell went for Brown?! Wow. Feel free to comment away. I have to say that just having a competitive race (for the first time in a long time) made it so much fun.