The sitting senator sent out a fundraising appeal, citing the specter of a potential challenge from a partisan television personality and commentator. The TV type immediately fired back, dismissing the appeal as a stunt to whip up the base.
If it sounds like Fox News pundit Scott Brown and his dalliance with a possible run for a Senate seat in New Hampshire against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, you’re right. But if it also sounds like déjà vu, you’re also right. In March of 2010, then-Sen. Brown sent out a letter imploring donors to fill his coffers because of a movement to get MSNBC host – and liberal darling — Rachel Maddow to jump into the race against him.
“It’s only been a couple of months since I’ve been in office, and before I’ve even settled into my new job, the political machine in Massachusetts is looking for someone to run against me,” Brown wrote in his 2010 fundraising appeal. “And you’re not going to believe who they are supposedly trying to recruit — liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow.”
Maddow disclaimed any intent to run, even taking out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe, but that didn’t stop the speculation on the part of Brown aides as a way to use Maddow, a lightning rod for conservatives, to refill the bank account.
Fade to black and reopen the scene on New Hampshire. Shaheen and an aide for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who did run against Brown and defeated him last year, emailed solicitations for donations with the idea that Brown, who touts his moderate credentials but has some support among the GOP’s conservative base, is ramping up his machine to run in the Granite State.
“On Monday, Scott Brown is coming to Hampstead, NH, for his seventh meeting in six months with New Hampshire GOP insiders,” Shaheen’s fundraising letter claims. “This is his latest hint at running against me. We cannot afford to underestimate him. Just like he did in his 2012 race against Elizabeth Warren, Brown would bring tens of millions in support from Wall Street and Tea Party billionaires.”
Brown was simply aghast at the politicization of his trip and called the letters using him to scare the troops “shameful.”
“I think it’s shameful that she would do that because I’m not a declared candidate, and for her to infer anything differently is misrepresenting me and her intentions to the people that are allegedly and supposedly giving her money,” Brown said.
Despite his Casablanca-like surprise that gamesmanship is at play (“I’m shocked, shocked to find that politics is going on here”), using a strawman is a tried and true method to appeal to the base on either side of the ideological divide, as Brown himself discovered 3-1/2 years ago. But Brown is also doing little to calm the waters.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Brown and his wife, Gail Huff, have put their Wrentham home up for sale, a decision that Brown insists is personal, not political. The couple owns some rental condos in Boston but they also have a vacation home in Rye, NH, which has gotten much of the focus of attention on where they’d live. In addition to his appearances on Fox, Brown has also been traveling the country on behalf of GOP candidates to raise funds as well as his own image and fueling speculation that he is looking at a run for the White House. Constant journeys to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states on the primary schedule, will do that.
It’s hard to say what Brown will do. After months of speculation with the departure of John Kerry to become Secretary of State, Brown declined to take up the gauntlet. And though he was touted as a potential Bigfoot for the governor’s race next year, he pulled out of that as well, foregoing a potential challenge to Charlie Baker. His name has been bandied about in a run against Sen. Edward Markey, who won Kerry’s seat, for next year. Or he could stay where he is and make money as a lawyer and commentator.
Brown clearly is hard to read, perhaps just the way he likes it. But, quite frankly, we are shocked, shocked at the politics here.
–JACK SULLIVAN
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The US government shuts down. Federal employees will be most immediately affected. There is a bright side to the mess — politically, for Democrats. Meanwhile, The MetroWest Daily News praises the benefits of Obamacare: enrollment under the Affordable Care Act begins today. The Wall Street Journal writes that the shutdown will define John Boehner’s speakership. The New York Times argues that the distance between Boehner’s House and the White House has never been greater. National Review’s Andrew Stiles says a shutdown isn’t as cataclysmic as the hand-wringing portends.
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick’s bill to revamp the state’s public housing system is coming up for a hearing, the Associated Press reports (via Telegram & Gazette).
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow and Tom Keane go at it on the Globe op-ed page over whether Boston should be developing car-free housing.
The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association urges cops to press city councilors on their pending contract award, calling an arbitrator’s 24.5 percent pay hike “much less than we deserve.”
CASINOS
A wing and a prayer: A coalition of 30 religious leaders of various faiths has formed to battle against the East Boston casino and the November 5 ballot question to approve it.
KG Urban Enterprises applies for a casino license in Southeastern Massachusetts, the only applicant in the Southeast region. KG’s entrance puts the developer in direct competition with the Mashpee Wampanoag.
ELECTIONS
In the Boston mayor’s race, no more Mr. Nice Guys. Marty Walsh tells why.
In a Voices piece for CommonWealth, David O’Connor analyzes the key issues surrounding the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which has been a recurring subject in the mayoral election.
Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy and her mayoral rival, City Council President Timothy Phelan, get chippy during a debate that revealed just how frosty relations are between the mayor and the city council, the Item reports.
EDUCATION
Construction of a new shared downtown Boston school building will be costly. Very costly.
The Lowell School Committee is coming up with a $450,000 plan to keep class sizes in check
at the kindergarten level, the Sun reports.
Brockton Mayor Linda Balzotti warned school bus drivers they could lose their jobs if they strike but the drivers’ union says she’s engaging in unfair labor practices by taking sides with the private company and not sending them a similar warning.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris says the state is facing a truancy crisis, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A Saugus parent pushes for uniforms for school students, but school officials say legally they can’t mandate uniforms, the Item reports.
HEALTH CARE
Massachusetts and other states prepare for the launch of Obamacare this week, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Steward Health Care is financially a mixed bag, reports the Globe, and a three-year ban is about to expire on the company’s ability to sell or close hospitals. Columnist Steven Syre is the most negative, calling Steward the medical empire that never happened.
The state is set to unveil a study later this week on the high incidence of multiple sclerosis and ALS and its potential link to contamination at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Base. Local officials say they’ve been kept in the dark about the investigation and are just learning of the hearing.
TRANSPORTATION
Most New York-Boston train service resumes after a week of delays, NECN reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
With all the focus on the federal shutdown and the launch of health care exchanges, it’s being lost that today begins the controversial price hikes and flood zone map changes for those living in federally designated flood-risk areas.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A new report says New York City’s annual cost per prison inmate is $167,731, about the same as the four-year tuition bill to an Ivy League college, Governing reports.
MEDIA
The Dallas Morning News dismantles its paywall.
CNN shelves plans for a documentary about the Clintons. Director Charles Ferguson explains that no one would cooperate.
