Summary

Mayer begins her analysis of the 2010 midterm elections by addressing a surprising Republican victory in the historically liberal state of Massachusetts. Scott Brown secured a seat that altered the balance of power in the Senate at a crucial moment for the Obama administration; his election ultimately “deprived the Democrats of the sixty-vote minimum necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster” on Obama’s prized legislation, the Affordable Care Act (240). The one vote, to Mayer, represented the beginning of the most active mobilization of the conservative movement to date in her investigation.

Scott Brown’s election was not spurred by a sweeping grassroots conservative shift in ideology in Massachusetts. Rather, it was part of a calculated strategy enacted by wealthy conservatives aimed at using a small-game strategy to block the progression of the Affordable Care Act. This motive became clear at...