Vineyard voters stood decisively for Democratic candidate and state attorney general Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special election, but it was Republican state Sen. Scott Brown who staged an unexpected surge to win the U.S. Senate Seat left vacant by the death of liberal leader Edward M. Kennedy.

Statewide, voters split 52 per cent to Mr. Brown, 47 per cent to Ms. Coakley.

A former Wrentham town assessor and one-time centerfold for Cosmopolitan, where he posed nude in 1982, Mr. Brown campaigned on a platform of change aimed at voters uneasy with the economy. The Equity card-carrying former actor cast himself as a regular truck-driving guy who thinks government is too big and taxes are too high, as a family man and a patriot, and above all as a Republican who by virtue of party affiliation alone could crack the Democratic super-majority in the Senate and block President Obama’s agenda.

And though Mr. Brown was handily rejected by voters in all Island towns, even here voters would be seen retreating notably from the overwhelming support they provided to the Democratic ticket in 2008.

Compared to that presidential election which sent Barack Obama to the White House, in which voter turnout was predictably higher, support for the Democrats was down 13 per cent in Edgartown, 12 per cent in Aquinnah, 11 per cent in Oak Bluffs, 10 in Chilmark, nine in Tisbury and eight in West Tisbury.

The drop in support comes as unemployment continues to rise across the commonwealth and the nation, where Democrats hold power.

The latest Massachusetts job numbers, released a month ago, show that from November 2008 to November 2009, unemployment rose across the Vineyard; only Chilmark stayed steady at four per cent unemployment. In Edgartown, unemployment rose from 6.5 to 10.5 per cent, while in Oak Bluffs it rose from 6.7 to 9.6 per cent.

Still, Ms. Coakley, a seasonal Vineyarder, won solid support here.

In Aquinnah, she won almost 78 per cent of the vote, or 149 votes to Mr. Brown’s 42.

In Chilmark, she took nearly 71 per cent of the vote, or 364 votes to Mr. Brown’s 141.

In West Tisbury, it was 74 per cent for Ms. Coakley, or 1,033 votes to Mr. Brown’s 347.

In Tisbury, she won 66 per cent of the vote, or 1,172 votes to Mr. Brown’s 579.

In Oak Bluffs, the vote was 61 per cent in Ms. Coakley’s favor, 1,177 votes to Mr. Brown’s 732.

In Edgartown, Mr. Brown’s best Island showing, Ms. Coakley still took 55.8 per cent of the vote; 1,002 votes to his 771 (almost 43 per cent).

Mr. Brown did carry Gosnold, 29 votes to 18,

The independent candidate Joseph L. Kennedy, no relation to the former Senator Kennedy, garnered only a handful of votes around the Island, never more than two per cent.

Voters in Aquinnah and Chilmark also approved Proposition 2 1/2 overrides for town spending, to cover the cost of town hall repairs and the Middle Line Road project respectively.