John McCain

U.S. Sen. John Kerry's office said Tuesday that it is time to move past prior differences of opinion and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's efforts this year to help GOP nominee John McCain.

In a caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Democrats voted by secret ballot to allow Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent, to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government affairs committee. However, Lieberman will lose his seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

In a statement to PolitickerMA.com, Brigid O'Rourke, Kerry's spokeswoman, said the caucus decided to move forward. "The Democratic caucus voted today by secret ballot and the result of that vote was to put aside old differences," she said.

O'Rourke also highlighted President-elect Barack Obama's call for leniency toward Lieberman.

"President-elect Obama asked for forgiveness for Sen. Lieberman, the caucus has made a decision to censure his comments and strip of his membership on the EPW Committee, and it's time to move on," she said.

O'Rourke declined to comment on how Kerry voted. Politico reported, however, that Kerry spoke out in support of Lieberman.

Just minutes after polls closed, TV networks called Massachusetts for Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is the projected winner of Massachusetts' twelve electoral votes, according to CNN.

With only a handfull of precincts reporting, the Democrat leads in the very early results with 50 percent of the vote, while John McCain has 48 percent.

With polls opening in less than 16 hours, PolitickerMA.com asked the local punditry to handicap the state's top of the ballot races. Here's a breakdown of what they said.

Presidential:

Nothing shocking here, as PolitickerMA.com couldn't find a single pundit or strategist that believes Republican nominee John McCain is going to beat Democratic nominee Barack Obama in the Bay State, which hasn't backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1984. Some analysts did differ, however, on what Obama's victory margin will be.

Charles Stewart, a political scientist at MIT, crunched the numbers Monday morning and said he believed Obama would carry the state by about the margin that U.S. Sen. John Kerry won it in 2004 - 25 percent. "That's about where the average of the polls has been," Stewart said, "though it might be a little higher because these polls are kind of stale."

Stewart noted that Obama is up about 8 to 10 percentage points across the country compared to where Kerry was at this point in 2004. The problem for Obama, Stewart said, is that there isn't much room to expand the margin in Massachusetts since Democrats pretty much maxed out for Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore, who hit the 60 percent mark when he won by 27 percentage points in 2000.

"There is nowhere for Obama to go in Massachusetts compared to Kerry," Stewart said.

CAMBRIDGE -- When asked what he thinks of Republican presidential nominee John McCain and other Republicans blaming Barney Frank for the country's current economic problems, Congressman Michael Capuano could only laugh.

"I absolutely think it's hilarious that it's apparently his personal fault that the entire world economy is in the toilet," Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, told PolitickerMA.com. "I wish that Barney was that powerful and that influential because the world would be better off if he were."

In the final weeks of campaign, McCain and other Republicans have often blamed Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services, for the failures Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the embattled mortgage lenders. McCain has also attempted to use Frank to warn voters of the dangers of one-party rule in Washington if Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is elected.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday that GOP presidential nominee's John McCain's economic plan is helping him close the gap in pivotal states he must carry to win the presidency on Tuesday.

Speaking via satellite from Toledo, Ohio, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Romney, a Belmont Republican and 2008 presidential contender, said recent Mason-Dixon polling shows McCain closing ground.

"The Mason-Dixon polls that came out yesterday state by state, show John McCain leading in Ohio, and Florida," Romney said. "Of course, we gotta pick up Pennsylvania as well and then perhaps Virginia, New Hampshire, [and] some combination including Iowa New Mexico, Nevada. There's a pathway to victory for John McCain."

U.S. Sen. John Kerry said Sunday that Republican presidential nominee John McCain would continue the same policies implemented by Republican President George W. Bush.

Kerry, a frequent surrogate for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, appeared on NBC's Meet the Press in the show's final episode before the election on Tuesday.

"John McCain does not represent a break with George Bush," the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee said. "I mean, yesterday he was endorsed by Dick Cheney. He earned that endorsement by supporting this administration 90 percent of the time."

Kerry, a Boston Democrat, also criticized McCain for running a negative campaign. "This has been one of the most divisive campaigns in history," he said. "John McCain [said] he wanted this campaign to be about big ideas and he wanted it to respect the American people's desire not to be negative. It's been the most negative--100 percent of his advertising is negative."

Former Gov. Jane Swift will campaign on behalf of Republican presidential nominee John McCain in Pennsylvania Sunday.

Swift, a North Adams Republican, is set to attend canvassing rallies in Harrisburg and Pottsville.

Swift endorsed McCain early in the Republican primary race this year and has been a frequent surrogate for McCain, especially since the Arizonan tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Swift is the head of the "Palin Truth Squad," which has sought to debunk any rumors about the vice presidential nominee.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry responded to Republican challenger Jeff Beatty's criticism Sunday, blasting Beatty for not offering a vision for the future of the country.

In an email to PolitickerMA.com, Brigid O'Rourke, a spokeswoman for the Boston Democrat, said Beatty has focused more on personal attacks than on offering his own policy proposals.

"Instead of worrying about prom dates, Jeff should just focus on his own campaign and start talking about what he stands for, because most Massachusetts voters still don't know," O'Rourke said. "Jeff has no clear stances on critical issues like providing health care to Americans, improving education, fixing our economy, or even taxes. All Jeff has been clear on is his support for guns in our schools, his reckless plan to drill our way to energy independence, and the fact that he is a faithful supporter of George Bush and the McCain-Palin ticket."

U.S. Sen. John Kerry is slated to appear on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. Kerry, a frequent surrogate for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, will appear with former senator and 2008 presidential contender Fred Thompson.

Thompson, it is worth noting, recently recorded a robo-call on behalf of Kerry's Republican challenger, Jeff Beatty.