What’s on the minds of Bromfield students? The Press asks them to weigh in on a variety of topics.

This month: Despite the fact that most Bromfield students are under the voting age, the student population did not allow the recent race between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown to go unnoticed. While some ignored the election, others held strong opinions about the candidates. The question this month, therefore, is this: Which candidate did you want to win the position of Massachusetts State Senator, and why?

Justin Warren, grade 12:

[I voted for] Scott Brown, because I oppose the health bill, and I choose Republican. And all the ads she [Coakley] had were mainly bashing Brown, whereas his ads actually talked about his views; it made me not want her to represent us in the senate, not really knowing her stance on issues our state has. From what I understand about [the health care bill], it isn’t a good thing. Or at least I have heard it is not good for hospital workers. And [for me], as someone pursuing a hospital type job, the bill doesn’t seem like a plus for the nation.

Scott Myslinski, grade 12:

Well, I was hoping Coakley would win, mostly because I was looking for support for the health care bill, and I’m liberal. But I think it’s very significant that Brown won. A lot of people are saying “He’s a new Republican … the Scott Brown Republican…It’s kind of trying to fade away from the whole Bush thing and help moderate voters take a new look at the party. Whether that’s true or not, doesn’t really matter: what it means is that people have a new reason to vote for Republican politicians, on top of the first reason, which is that Obama is losing support. [Brown] says he wants to act with both parties to help pass the [health care] bill and has experience with passing some Massachusetts health bill, but that’s probably just a way to gain support from moderates, so I don’t think he’ll help very much in getting anything passed.

Emma Noyes, grade 9:

I am an Independent, but I honestly can’t say I really completely supported any of the candidates. Overall though, I think that Brown should’ve won. Coakley definitely had some things right, but she ran a really dirty campaign ... and I think that shows a lot about how people are going to behave in office and just about their character in general. Plus, her whole opinion on increasing taxes and making our government even bigger is shenanigans. Brown’s opinions on backing off on the spending and debt are right, but I think he should support the health care bill, and his 41st vote deal is tomfoolery. At the same time, though, I don’t think Brown won because of his opinions... I think he won because he is a Republican, and because he was so decisively against the health care bill. Everyone is unsettled with Obama right now because of all the debt that just seems to be growing ... so I think that because he [Brown] openly seemed to be against it, people connected with him a little more. I thought Brown was the best one despite his weird Cosmo photos.

Joe Beebe, grade 11:

I would have voted for Martha Coakley, but I wouldn’t have been completely happy about it. I didn’t think there were good candidates on either side. Even though I dislike some of Martha Coakley’s positions and policies, I thought she had better positions and policies than Scott Brown, like her policies on health care. Scott Brown is also a supporter of state rights and Coakley is a supporter of federal rights over state rights, which is something I am a supporter of. [In Washington], I think Scott Brown will complete his agenda very well, even though I disagree with what his agenda is: he wants to derail health care and pass conservative fiscal and social bills, and I think he’s going to do that to the best of his ability, as much as I wish he wouldn’t.

Lily Ritter, grade 11:

I supported Coakley. I didn’t really follow [the election] that closely, but I was pretty disappointed. Mainly because of health care, and so, obviously, since Scott Brown won, he isn’t going to vote for it, so that kind of screws up the entire country. I didn’t really like Martha Coakley that much aside from the fact that we needed her vote on health care. Brown is probably not going to have much power though, because he’s only a junior senator.