Campaign ’12
Bay State Brown-Out?
Scott Brown’s voting record has infuriated conservatives. Now he faces a costly slugfest to keep Ted Kennedy’s old seat.
BY JOE BATTENFELD H
e stood outside in the cold rain, in his trademark barn coat.
As usual, U.S. Sen. Scott
Brown was early — among the first politicians to arrive outside a Worcester, Mass., church for the funeral of a fallen firefighter. It’s the kind of person-
al gesture that got Brown elected in 2010, and made him the most popular politi- cian in Massachusetts — no small feat for a Republican who replaced the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy. But less than a year
before his 2012 re-election date, the man who stormed into the Senate with the nickname “Forty-One” — the GOP’s 41st vote to block Obamacare — is in danger of leaving Washington with a new name: “one-termer.” He faces an unexpect- edly tough challenge from
Political Analyst KARL ROVE:
GOP can win control of the Senate.
former Obama administra- tion official Elizabeth War- ren, who is all but assured of winning the Democratic nomination. The battle is already attracting third-party politi- cal groups from the left and the right who are inundat- ing Massachusetts airwaves with attack ads — a sign of just how important the White House and Republi- can Party view the match- up. Analysts predict it will likely be the most expensive campaign in the nation this year, except for the presi- dential race. Todd Feinberg, a conser-
vative radio talk-show host in Boston and supporter of Brown, says: “He’s got a challenging race. He’s got a capable opponent with all the money in the world behind her and the backing of the White House.” In a December Boston
SEE VIDEO AT:
newsmax.com/SeeTV 32 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2012
Herald/University of Mas- sachusetts poll, the Harvard Law professor and consumer advo- cate was running 7 points ahead of Brown in a race that could very
BROWN
Scott Brown: He’s cast some key votes that favor President Obama’s agenda.
well decide the Senate’s bal- ance of power. Right-leaning voters are disturbed that Brown has cast key swing votes in favor of a number of measures important to President Obama’s agenda, and has taken a decidedly liberal stance on several issues: Brown voted in favor of
the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a measure generally opposed by con- servatives and backed by congressional Democrats. Brown also voted in favor
of Obama’s New START bill to reduce America’s
stockpile of nuclear weap- ons, a move that security expert Frank Gaffney said puts the nation in danger. Brown was the first Republican to express sup- port for the administra- tion’s nominee to head the Consumer Financial Pro- tection Bureau, an agency opposed by conservatives. He was 1 of just 5 Repub-
licans to vote for cloture on Obama’s jobs bill last year, and voted for final passage of the bill. He praised Sen- ate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Sen. John Kerry for what he termed their willingness to
BROWN/BOSTON GLOBE/GETTY IMAGES
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