When it looks like the rest of the country is going to swing heavily to the Republicans, enough Democrats go to the polls in Massachusetts to give the Democrats victory in the state.
Barney's district is a lost cause for Republicans, especially now. The only slim hope of taking him down would have been if the election were only about him and enough of his voters could give him the thumbs down without feeling that they were turning Congress over the Republicans.
But that only would have been a very slim hope. Much of his district was old Republican country -- Joe Martin, the last GOP Speaker of the House before Gingrich, was from the area and his successor Margaret Heckler was also a Republican -- but nowadays it's as lost to Republicans as Manhattan or San Francisco or Obama's neighborhood in Chicago.
That’s interesting. So maybe knowing that more Republicans would be elected in other states motivated the nuts to especially get out there and support Boxer even though few people actually like her.