The special election campaign in Massachusetts is getting more interesting by the minute. What was supposed to be an easy win for the Democrat, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, in the race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat is getting tighter and uglier.

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The first negative ad of the campaign has been release just a week before the January 19 election and the surprising news is it's from Ms. Coakley's camp. Instead of exhibiting the cool confidence of someone who is supposed to win by double digits, the Democrat's desperation is showing as Republican State Senator Scott Brown makes the race closer than anyone imagined. The ad uses the same old Democratic rhetoric that seeks to blame former President George W. Bush, instigate class warfare and hurl generic partisan insults.

"Who is Scott Brown really? A Republican in lockstep with Washington Republicans," the narrator of the ad says, going on to attack Mr. Brown for resisting tougher Wall Street oversight, favoring Bush-era tax cuts that tilted toward the wealthy, and supporting a measure in the state Legislature to allow hospital personnel to deny emergency contraception to rape victims. (source)

Mr. Brown's campaign released the following statement in response to the ad: "Instead of discussing issues like health care and jobs, Martha Coakley decided the best way to stop me is to tear me down. But the old way of doing things won't work anymore. Her attack ads are wrong and go too far. Massachusetts voters are paying attention to this election and they deserve better than tired, old gutter politics."

On a related note, Massachusetts voters are showing their disapproval for Governor Deval Patrick (D) concerning his re-election bid. He leads the most recent poll but with only 29%. His opponents, Charlie Baker (R) and Timothy Cahill (I), receive 27% and 21% respectively. Among undecided voters in that race, Governor Patrick's approval rating is just 7%, with 72% of those voters disapproving of his job performance. (source)

While that election won't be held until November, current polling results and approval ratings offer clues about Bay State voters' current opinions of Democrats' performance. And those are the opinions which will be reflected in next week's special election.