Scott Brown took a few jabs at a political culture that has already begun boiling with talk about 2012 before anybody elected in the 2010 midterms has been sworn into office, but his speech this morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce felt a lot like a stump speech. It was heavy on red meat. And its focus on jobs and taxes seemed to lay the groundwork for what Brown expects will be a bruising campaign to retain his Senate seat.
Brown opened his speech with a nod to the intense speculation over his future. (State Democratic strategists have already labeled him their top target in 2012, and the cover of the Boston Herald recently urged him to run for president.) When he wrapped up speaking to the room full of business leaders, he joked, “I’ll be outside in my barn jacket, in my green truck, shaking hands with Curt Schilling, and we can get this political season started.”
But even as he dismissed the ever-accelerating campaign calendar, Brown frequently touched on his own unique standing in the heavily-Democratic state. He repeatedly noted that many people in the room hadn’t supported his upstart campaign against Attorney General Martha Coakley. He said constituents often approach him and congratulate him on having run a positive campaign; they whisper that they’re Democrats, he said, but they’re with him in 2012, even if they didn’t vote for him last January.
“People tell me, I like the fact that you’re a Scott Brown Republican,” Brown said. “You don’t work for Harry Reid or Mitch McConnell.” He added, “I’m doing my job if I’m getting protested by the left and the right.”
Often, politicians use their speeches to the Boston Chamber as a forum to pitch new policy initiatives to local business leaders. In recent years, for example, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino unveiled a bridge loan program for stalled construction projects, and Senate President Therese Murray has launched bids to digitize medical records and revamp the state’s agricultural agenda.
By contrast, Brown’s speech was broad and often aimed beyond the bodies seated in front of him. The bulk of his speech was an attack on Washington, DC, and a pledge to seed job creation by lowering taxes across the board. It was the stuff of an election-cycle pitch to a frightened middle-class electorate. It could have easily been delivered at the corner of Broadway and Dorchester Street in South Boston, instead of the ballroom of the Park Plaza.
In his nine months in office, Brown said, Congress had debated job creation for 10 or 11 days, tops. “Every day, I wake up and wonder what kind of fluff will be passed that day,” he said. Congress’s focus, he said, “seems a little upside-down to me.” His job, he said, is “to get them to focus on getting the economy moving again. The message of this election was, ‘Washington still isn’t listening.’” Later, he added, “What are we talking about in Washington? Everything but jobs.”
As he pitched lower taxes on businesses, workers, capital gains, and dividends, Brown knocked Washington on 14 separate occasions. “I’m hoping this Congress will say, ‘Message received, we’re getting back to work,’” he said. “I’ll let you know.”
Asked about his own political future, Brown answered, “I’m not a political pundit or an analyst. People ask, ‘Are you worried about your job?’ Give me a break. Really. You know whose job I’m worried about? Yours.” He added, “I never stopped running. I’ve been running for 17 years, and I’ve always been the underdog. I am a Republican from Massachusetts. I have the scars to prove it.”