The morning of November 7th, 2012, while many political pundits were busy dissecting the factors in the presidential race that led to a smooth re-election for President Barack Obama, a select few discussed the intriguing results of various races for seats in the House of Representatives and the US Senate. American public have always held a special interest in the way congressional races are run and won, but this election season was particularly intriguing due to the high national profile that certain congressional races received. The national media played a major role in the exposure of these elections; the Senate race in Massachusetts was instantly framed as a clash between true liberalism and a senator's ability to "reach across the aisle." In Virginia, the media quickly picked up on a rare campaign for an open US Senate seat between two highly respected former governors. Across the country, in California's sunny San Fernando Valley, a race between two longtime incumbent Democratic lawmakers snagged nationwide attention as reporters began to refer to the race as a "slugfest"" between the two congressmen. Now that these contentious races have been concluded and winners declared, there are several questions that beg the average political spectator's input: What drew the nation's press corps to these races? What factors influenced the results of each of these elections? More importantly, what attention must be paid in regards to the ways that these races were conducted and won?.

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             The first and most basic dissection that must occur is around the circumstances that brought these races into the spotlight. In January 2010, Massachusetts held a special election for the senate seat vacated by the late Senator Edward "Ted " Kennedy. A little-known Republican state senator, Scott Brown, eked out a surprise victory against Democratic State Attorney General, Martha Coakley. Senator Brown was elected with 1,168,178 votes to Attorney General Coakley's 1,060,861, or 51.