Mass. Sen. vote affects Wabash Valley

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Republican Scott Brown's Senate win in Mass., is a major obstacle for Democrats pushing for health care reform.

Senate Democrats are now one vote short of the 60 needed to pass health care legislation, a move that affects folks in the Wabash Valley.

"Scott brown's win on health care gives Republicans a 41st seat in the Senate which gives them the ability to filibuster the health care bill," Rose-Hulman Political-Science professor Dr. Terrence Casey said.

And even though voters were in Mass., experts said their sentiment represents the nation.

"Democrats should win Massachusetts elections by a landslide, and they lost on that," Casey said. "In essence, if they can't win in Massachusetts, can they really win in Indiana?"

And politicians will likely take note.

"The open question on this is how Democratic leaders are going to interpret this," Casey said. "I'm particularly thinking of blue dog Democrats, Brad Ellsworth, Evan Bayh, wanting to step back and say, 'Wait a minute, this looks troubling to us. This looks politically dangerous. We need to rethink this.'"

Democrats fast-tracking the legislation before the newly elected Senator's vote counts seems unlikely.

"They could delay it or they could conceivable try to push through the legislation prior to him being seated, but that is a very politically dangerous move to make because that would really look like the people of Massachusetts voted, they said they didn't like it, but we're going to try to push this through before you get your guy seated," Casey said. "It's an incredibly risky strategy."

On Wednesday Obama said Congress must wait for Senator-elect Brown to be sworn in before health care legislation moves forward.

It could take up to two weeks before Scott Brown is sworn in. Brown is a strong opponent of the proposed health care bills.