MA-SEN Race: A Fight To The Finish

We've hit crunch time. With just a week to go until the special Senate election in Massachusetts, top Democratic Party leaders are descending on the state in an effort to help Martha Coakley pull out the win. And, both sides are raising and spending massive amounts of money in the final push to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Massachusetts is getting a mini-stimulus this week, with capital flowing rapidly into the state's economy. Yesterday, of course, Republican Scott Brown conducted a money-bomb fundraiser, claiming to have brought in $1,303,302.50 in one day. Today, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee purchased $567,000 in ad time for the Boston and Springfield markets. Massachusetts Democrats have already spent $288,000 for a race that seemed like a lock just a few days ago.

Massachusetts should be an easy walk for the Democrats. But over the last couple of days, the polls have tightened. According to the latest Rassmusen poll, Brown has pulled to within two points of Coakley, within the margin of error of ±3%. The Democrats have moved into crisis mode, deploying such heavy-weights as former President Bill Clinton and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Clinton will headline a rally for Coakley in Boston this Friday at 2 p.m. ET.

Democrats have a reason to be freaking out. If Brown wins, he would be the 41st Republican, giving the minority party the ability to block bills from passing against even 59 unanimous members of the Democratic caucus. And Brown has made it clear in his campaign that he would vote to block the health care bill. This would leave Democrats with the only remaining options being to have the House pass the Senate version from December, to somehow find a Republican to bargain with (not likely), or simply fail at the whole venture.

Meanwhile, as Greg Sargent reports, the Democratic National Committee sent a memo to top donors warning that the race is "very tight," based on internal polling. The DNC is making an "urgent" call for help, Sargent adds.

And as Greg also reports, Coakley herself expressed a lot of worry to donors on a private conference call, over Brown's surge in the polls: "It's a little frightening how much traction he's been able to get so quickly." Coakley also asked donors to send more money her way so the campaign could buy more television adds, saying "It's astounding how expensive this is," according to Sargent. "We can't stress enough how urgent it is. We need $400,000 in additional TV, $325,000 in getting out the vote mailings, and $80,000 in robocalls."

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine was also on the call and said party leaders were "cautiously optimistic."