SCOTT BROWN STATEMENT ON MASSACHUSETTS SENATE ELECTION

BOSTON – Today, Senator Scott Brown issued the following statement:

“Representing Massachusetts in the United States Senate was the greatest privilege of my life, an experience that takes second place only to my marriage to Gail and the birth of our daughters. It was a higher honor than I had ever expected, and in the time given to me I always tried to make the most of it.

“When I was first sent to the Senate in early 2010, it wasn’t exactly welcome news for President Obama or many other Democrats. Yet among my best memories from those three years in office are visits to the White House to see the President sign into law bills that I had sponsored. I left office last month on the best of terms with colleagues both Republican and Democrat. I had worked well with so many of them, regardless of party, to serve the public interest just as we are all supposed to. All of this was in keeping with the pledge I made at the beginning to do my own thinking and to speak for the independent spirit of our great state.

“Over these past few weeks I have given serious thought about the possibility of running again, as events have created another vacancy requiring another special election. I have received a lot of encouragement from friends and supporters to become a candidate, and my competitive instincts were leading in the same direction.

“Even so, I was not at all certain that a third Senate campaign in less than four years, and the prospect of returning to a Congress even more partisan than the one I left, was really the best way for me to continue in public service at this time. And I know it’s not the only way for me to advance the ideals and causes that matter most to me.

“That is why I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for the United States Senate in the upcoming special election.”

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Brown greeted a busy room of campaign workers at his offices on Chelmsford Street. He worked the phones for a few minutes, cold-calling voters and asking them for their support.

“This is me. I’m personally calling you,” Brown said over the phone to a person from Falmouth.

Brown then told the voter he has an “open heart” and is running for re-election to “bring some balance to the equation.”

After making a half-dozen calls, Brown signed autographs and posed for photos with campaign volunteers. He was accompanied by his wife, Gail Huff, and one of their two daughters, Arianna.

After Lowell, Brown had stops scheduled in Fitchburg, Worcester, Framingham, Walpole and Wrentham, his hometown.

Warren also had a full day of campaigning, with events scheduled in Boston, Fall River, Worcester, Framingham and West Roxbury.

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This article first appeared in the Lowell Sun on November 6th, 2012.

The venue was not unfamiliar for the Wrentham resident. In 2010, Brown’s campaign held a similar event the night before he was elected a US Senator and had hosted previous events for Brown when he was a state representative and state senator.

With State Rep. Dan Winslow warming up the estimated 900 supporters in attendance, the representative for Wrentham and Norfolk was vocal in his support for Brown to start the evening.

“One person in Massachusetts has the guts, the courage, the integrity to lead, and to vote for what’s best for everyone in Massachusetts regardless of party stripe and that is Scott Brown from Wrentham, Massachusetts,” said an enthusiastic Winslow.

Keeping with the campaign’s message of Brown’s bi-partisan credentials, Democratic State Rep. Jim Vallee took to the stage in support of Brown and his ability to work with members of both political parties. Vallee, who served with Brown in the National Guard and in the State Legislature, credited Brown with some of his accomplishments in the legislature.

“A lot of my success was because of my good friend Scott Brown. Arm and arm, friend and friend, Scott Brown and I put people over party. Scott and I never thought about each other as Democrats or Republicans. That’s why Scott is a great Senator,” Vallee said.

Brown’s wife Gail Huff followed Valle, praising his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans in a partisan environment.

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This article first appeared in the Wrentham Patch on November 6th, 2012.

And he is pleading with volunteers to call everyone they know to urge them to vote.

“Don’t go to bed tomorrow wishing you had done more. I need you,” Brown said.

The final Election Eve push from Brown, the Wrentham Republican, came in his hometown. He is hoping to hold onto the seat he won in the special election nearly three years ago, a seat long controlled by the Democrats.

“I’m dealing with extremes on both sides when I’m down there as that person in the middle trying to solve problems as the second-most bipartisan senator, putting people over party,” Brown said.

With no mention of that R next to his name, he speaks about his independent voice – and his supporters say that message is both loud and clear.

“I did [vote for him 3 years ago],” said Dr. Brendan McCarthy of Dover. “It was one of the first elections I got really excited about. I’m an independent; I’ve never registered as a Republican or a Democrat. I think we need more of that in politics and more of it in Washington.”

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This story first appeared on NECN on November 6th, 2012.

BOSTON - On the eve of the Massachusetts Senate election, the Brown campaign released a new web video, called “The Road To Victory.” The online spot features highlights from Brown’s five-day, 1,000 mile, grassroots “People Over Party” statewide bus tour that wraps up tonight with a hometown rally with supporters in Wrentham.

The video opens with America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani stumping with Brown in Boston’s North End and praising him for his independence, saying, “An independent voice for Massachusetts, an independent voice for America, nobody better than Scott Brown!”

Later in the video, Ray Flynn, the former Democratic mayor of Boston, speaks to the camera from Mul’s Diner in Southie, explaining why he crossed party lines to become a “Democrat For Brown.”

“Scott really is bipartisan. He’s independent. He votes in the best interest of all the people of the state,” says Flynn.

The video closes with shots from Brown’s packed rally at Faneuil Hall on Sunday where he urges the crowd to “shock the world” on Tuesday and reminds them that his election is about putting “people over party.”

To Watch “The Road To Victory,” Please See: http://youtu.be/aOtmJ_qbkrM

TRANSCRIPT FOR “THE ROAD TO VICTORY” (WEB 1:37)

VIDEO TEXT: People Over Party Statewide Tour

RUDY GIULIANI: “Independent voice for Massachusetts. An independent voice for America. Nobody better than Scott Brown.”

SCOTT BROWN: “Independent. You sent me down there to be that independent voter.”

KEN SHEA: “Cause he’s an independent. And he is fighting for our independence.”

BROWN SUPPORTER: “I’ve always liked Scott right from the beginning. I think that he’s a man of his word. I like the fact that he’s not a voter along party lines, which is really important to me, especially in this election.”

VIDEO TEXT: Shaking Hands and Winning The Hearts of Massachusetts

SCOTT BROWN: “Let’s talk a minute about what this race is really about. It’s about jobs and the economy. This is how you support small
businesses: by buying things not by taxing them to death, like my opponent wants to do.”

SCOTT BROWN: “and Capitol Hill, that you’ve had enough, that you deserve better, and that’s it’s people over party.”

RAY FLYNN: “Scott really is bipartisan. He’s independent. He votes in the best interest of all the people of the state.”

SCOTT BROWN: “2010, January 19th. We shocked the country. November 6, 2012, we’re going to shock the world.”

VIDEO TEXT: The Momentum Continues.

“The momentum is here. I feel it. I feel it more than I did in 2010,” Brown, his voice breaking, said at the Depot Diner, where a crush of supporters surrounded the Republican incumbent.

Brown was on the road early, buoyed by a UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll showing him with a 1 point advantage among likely voters over Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, an attorney and professor on leave from Harvard Law School.

During early morning rush-hour at Lynn’s hectic Wyoma Square crossroads, Brown, 53, of Wrentham, planted himself on a landscaped traffic island with Mayor Judy Flanagan Kennedy, who shed her jacket to don a red Brown for Senate T-shirt.

In a virtual dead heat, Brown said “experience” will make the difference when people are actually in the voting booth. He also conceded that Warren’s ability to ride President Obama’s coattails to victory is a real “challenge.”

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This article first appeared in the Boston Herald on November 5th, 2012.

“The Beverly Republican City Committee worked with the Scott Brown campaign to organize a stand out before he arrived at the diner,” said Medley Long, Beverly Republican City Committee’s media director. “These photos are from that stand out.”

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This article first appeared in the Beverly Patch on November 5th, 2012.

“Professor Warren has never met a tax hike she didn’t like, so it’s not surprising she’s open to government taking 50% of a family’s income,” said Colin Reed, communications director for Scott Brown. “Warren’s solution to all of our problems is higher and higher taxes on Massachusetts families and small businesses. This is the stark choice for voters in tomorrow’s election: whether we go down Warren’s path of higher taxes and more government, or whether we take Scott Brown’s approach and keep taxes low on all Americans and allow our free enterprise system to grow and flourish.”

Click HERE for video of the exchange.

FOX 25′S GENE LAVANCHY: “I want to talk about fair share because if someone — $388,000 is where you go into that upper echelon, so those folks, a couple working hard are in with the millionaires and billionaires with 39.6% ordinary income tax rate. If you add in 5.3% rate here in Massachusetts, you’re up to 44.9% excise tax, property tax, you might be knocking on the door of 50%, half of someone’s income. Is that too much for someone to pay – is that more than their fair share?”

ELIZABETH WARREN: “The point of the federal government and the point of his vote is this is about going back to the taxes that the top 2% were paying during the Clinton years. The Clinton years were good years for the top 2%, and I would point out, years in which we had a lot of job formation. Those were I should point out years in which there’s a lot of job formation, those were good years.”

The boisterous gathering of sign waving Brown enthusiasts exploded as the Senator slowly made his way to the stage, shaking hands along the way.Brown –as he’s done at every campaign stop–reminded his audience that he was in the fight of his political life with his opponent—whom he did not cite by name— and asked them to call everybody.

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This article first appeared on WGBH.org on November 5th, 2012.

As dozens of his supporters held blue campaign signs, the song “Gonna Fly Now,” also known as the theme from the film “Rocky,” blared from large speakers.

Within minutes, the GOP senator stood on a large stage next to the Rocky statue at Brockton High School’s Marciano Stadium and asked the crowd to support him on Tuesday.

Brown asked people to get on their telephones, Facebook, Twitter, and email and ask their neighbors, friends, and co-workers to vote for him.

“You ask them ‘I know Scott Brown. He didn’t need a GPS to get here,’” Brown told the crowd after being introduced by his wife, Gail Huff, and daughters, Ayla and Arianna.

Two days before the election, Brown stumped in the City of Champions – which has a traditional Democratic tilt – to get voters to the polls as he faces challenger Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic nominee.

“Brockton is a very important city … it’s huge and I’m working hard for every vote,” the senator said after the rally.

Warren herself rallied support in Brockton, talking to a crowd outside Christo’s Restaurant on Thursday.

In a tight race with Brown, Warren asked voters to do more than just tell friends to cast ballots on Tuesday. She encouraged voters to reach out to people in line at the grocery store, and people who have Brown signs on their lawn.

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This article first appeared in the Brockton Enterprise on November 5th, 2012.