Massachusetts Senate candidates spar over bank tax

BOSTON - Republican Scott Brown has surged into a dead heat with Democrat Martha Coakley in the pivotal U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, and President Barack Obama is on the way.

Obama visits the state today to try to preserve a 60th Senate vote critical to his health care agenda - and to keep the seat once held by the late Edward M. Kennedy in Democratic hands.

The narrowing of the race has alarmed Democrats, who have scrambled over the past week to try to salvage the race for Coakley.

Brown has made clear he would vote gainst the health plan.

Obama planned a quick dash to Boston today to appear with Coakley in a gymnasium at Northeastern University.

"I think he will provide the focus . . . for voters in Massachusetts about what's really at stake here," Coakley said.

Voters go to the polls Tuesday to replace Kennedy, who served in the Senate for 46 years before his death last August.

Yesterday, the candidates set aside health care differences to tussle over a proposed bank bailout tax, which the White House hopes will attract mainstream voters angry about Wall Street abuses and that Republicans say affirms Democrats as a pro-tax party.

"When President Obama says, 'Let's get our taxpayer dollar back,' I'm standing with him, and I'm standing with you," Coakley told union members about to canvass for her.

Brown said he was the one with the working class in mind. He said the tax would restrict banks from making loans and that consumers would end up paying higher service and ATM fees.

Obama contends that with banks shelling out for big bonuses, they can afford the tax. It would be used to close a deficit in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which many big banks used for bailouts but have since repaid.

"I'm not in favor of a huge payout" for bank executives," Brown said. "The bottom line is a tax right now on anybody in the midst of a recession is not the way to go."

Brown, a state senator, told supporters at a series of bus tour stops that it was one of many taxes Coakley would impose if she were elected.

The Democrats' challenge was evident at Coakley's first appearance yesterday. The Massachusetts attorney general sought to flex the party's traditional union muscle at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall, but several speakers acknowledged many in the rank and file are interested in Brown.

In suburban Quincy, Brown appeared with former Massachusetts Republican Gov. William F. Weld, now a corporate lawyer in New York. Weld endorsed Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, but he said voters are now suffering "spending fatigue and tax fatigue." Of Brown, Weld said, "He's not going to be a rubber stamp for every trillion dollars that comes along."